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THE 



North Carolina 
Historical Review 



Issued Quarterly 

Volume XXVIII Numbers 1-4 




JANUARY- OCTOBER 
1951 



Published by 

STATE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY 

Corner of Edenton and Salisbury streets 
Raleigh, N. C. 



k 



K 

3 V> 
THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL REVIEW 



Published by the State Department of Archives and History 

Raleigh, N. C. 



Christopher Crittenden, Editor 
David Leroy Corbitt, Managing Editor 



ADVISORY EDITORIAL BOARD 
Walter Clinton Jackson Hugh Talmage Lefler 

Frontis Withers Johnston Douglas Letell Rights 

George Myers Stephens 



STATE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY 

Benjamin Franklin Brown, Chairman 

Gertrude Sprague Carraway McDaniel Lewis 

Clarence W. Griffin Mrs. Sadie Smathers Patton 

William Thomas Laprade Mrs. Callie Pridgen Williams 

Christopher Crittenden, Director 



This review was established in January, 192b, as a medium of publication 
and discussion of history in North Carolina. It is issued to other institutions 
by exchange, but to the general public by subscription only. The regular 
price is $2.00 per year. To members of the State Literary and Historical 
Association there is a special price of $1.00 per year. Back numbers may be 
procured at the regular price of $2.00 per volume, or $.50 per number. 

[ii] 



The North Carolina 
Historical Review 



VOLUME XXVIII 



NUMBER 1, JANUARY, 1951 

THE GENESIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN NORTH 

CAROLINA 1 

R. D. W. Connor 

CHARLES PETTIGREW, FIRST BISHOP-ELECT OF 

THE NORTH CAROLINA EPISCOPAL CHURCH .... 15 

Bennett H. Wall 

BAPTIST ACADEMIES IN NORTH CAROLINA. ... 47 

George Washington Paschal 

LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO ANDREW 

JOHNSON 63 

Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 

BOOK REVIEWS 88 

Quinn's Raleigh and the British Empire — By Hugh T. 
Lefler ; Corritt's The Formation of the North Carolina 
Counties, 1663-1943 — By A. R. NEWSOME ; McRee's Life 
and Correspondence of James Iredell— By M. L. Skaggs ; 
Barringer's The Natural Bent — By Howard Braver- 
man ; Corbitt's Public Addresses, Letters, and Papers 
of Joseph Melville Broughton, Governor of North Caro- 
lina, 194.1-1945 — By David A. Lockmiller; Maxwell's 
Life and Works of Allen Jay Maxivell — By Paul Mur- 
ray ; Park's John Bell of Tennessee — By W. T. Jordan ; 
Coit's John C. Calhoun: American Portrait— By Fran- 
cis B. Simkins; Sellers's Slavery in Alabama — By 
Charles Sellers, Jr. ; Lathrop's Migration Into East 
Texas, 1835-1860 — By Dewey W. Grantham, Jr.; 
Townsend's Rustics in Rebellion. A Yankee Reporter 
on the Road to Richmond 1861-1865 — By Ella Lonn; 
Fulmer's Agricultural Progress in the Cotton Belt Since 

[iii] 



iv Contents 

1920 — By Stuart Noblin ; Bridenbaugh's The Colonial 
Craftsman — By Joye E. Jordan; Dickson's John Wes- 
ley Jarvis, American Painter, 1780-1 8 40 — By William 
S. Powell. 

HISTORICAL NEWS 110 



NUMBER 2, APRIL, 1951 

THE PROFESSIONAL THEATER IN WILMINGTON, 

1858-1870 119 

Donald J. Rulfs 

PAPERS FROM THE FIFTIETH ANNUAL SESSION OF 
THE STATE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL 
ASSOCIATION, Raleigh, December 1, 1950 

INTRODUCTION 137 

Christopher Crittenden 

THE NORTH CAROLINA SOJOURN OF THE FIRST 
AMERICAN NOVELIST 138 

Richard Walser 

THE STATE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL 

ASSOCIATION: 1900-1950 156 

William Burlie Brown 

NORTH CAROLINA BOOKS FOR 1950 198 

Dorothy Lloyd Gilbert 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE HISTORICAL DRAMA, 
"UNTO THESE HILLS" 212 

George Myers Stephens 

LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO ANDREW 

JOHNSON 219 

Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 

NORTH CAROLINA BIBLIOGRAPHY, 1949-1950 238 

Mary Lindsay Thornton 



Contents v 

BOOK REVIEWS 248 

CHAFFIN'S Trinity College, 1839-1892: The Beginnings of 
Duke University — By James W. Patton; Wagstaff's 
Impressions of Men and Movements at the University 
of North Carolina — By Nell Hines Harris ; Blythe's 
William Henry Belk: Merchant of the South — By 
Robert M. Langdon; Cadbury's The Church in the 
Wilderness : North Carolina Quakerism as Seen by Visi- 
tors and Fries's Parallel Lines in Piedmont North Caro- 
lina Quaker and Moravian History — By Paul Murray ; 
Lazenby's Catawba Frontier, 1775-1781: Memories of 
Pensioners — By Chalmers G. Davidson; Hemphill's 
Aerial Gunner from Virginia: The Letters of Don 
Moody to his Family during 19 UU — By Howard Braver- 
man; Stokes's and Berkeley's The Papers of Ran- 
dolph of Roanoke: A Preliminary Checklist of his Sur- 
viving Texts in Manuscript and in Print — By D. H. Gil- 
PATRICK; State Papers and Public Addresses: Clarence 
W. Meadows, Twenty -second Governor of West Vir- 
ginia, l9Jf5-l9ip9 — By Howard Braverman; Stampp's 
And the War Ca?ne — By R. S. Cotterill ; Carter's The 
Territorial Papers of the United States. Volume XVII. 
The Territory of Illinois, 1811^-1818 — By Margaret C. 
Norton; Fifteenth Annual Report of the Archivist of 
the United States, for the Year Ending June 30, 191*9, 
and Hufford's and Caudill's Preliminary Inventory of 
the Records of the United States Senate — By W. Edwin 
Hemphill; Cappon's and Duff's Virginia Gazette 
Index, 1736-1780— By W. FRANK BURTON. 

HISTORICAL NEWS 263 



NUMBER 3, JULY, 1951 

LEGAL EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA, 

1820-1860 271 

Fannie Memory Farmer 

DAVID CROCKETT AND NORTH CAROLINA 298 

James Atkins Shackpord 

THE PROFESSIONAL THEATER IN WILMINGTON, 

1870-1900 316 

Donald J. Rulfs 



vi Contents 

THE EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE OF JOSEPH GALES, 

1786-1794 332 

W. H. G. Armytage 

LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO ANDREW 

JOHNSON 362 

Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 

BOOK REVIEWS 376 

Brooks's A Southern Laivyer; Fifty Years at the Bar — 
By David A. Lockmiller; Corbitt's Addresses, Let- 
ters, and Papers of John Christoph Blucher Ehringhaus, 
Governor of North Carolina, 1933-1937 — By Wey- 
mouth T. Jordan ; Cauthen's South Carolina Goes to 
War, 1860-1865 — By Francis B. Simkins; Johnston's 
The Houstouns of Georgia — By Sarah Lemmon; 
Brookes's Joel Chandler Harris — Folklorist — By Lind- 
say R. Whichard ; Craven's and Cate's The Army Air 
Forces in World War II. The Pacific: Guadalcanal to 
Saipan (August 191*2 to July 19M.)—By Guion Grif- 
fis Johnson ; Easterby's Guide to the Study and Read- 
ing of South Carolina History: A General Classified 
Bibliography — By Mary Lindsay Thornton. 

HISTORICAL NEWS 389 



NUMBER 4, OCTOBER, 1951 

DAVID CALDWELL AND HIS LOG COLLEGE 399 

Aubrey Lee Brooks 

THE POEMS OF PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE TO 

FRANCES CHRISTINE FISHER 408 

Francis B. Dedmond 

CATAWBA SPRINGS— CAROLINA'S SPA 414 

Chalmers G. Davidson 

THE CAROLINA BRIGADE SENT AGAINST THE 

CREEK INDIANS IN 1814 421 

John K. Mahon 



Contents vii 

THE GENESIS OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 

DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1701-1823 426 

Sarah McCulloh Lemmon 

THE PROFESSIONAL THEATER IN 

WILMINGTON, 1900-1930 463 

Donald J. Rulfs 

LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO 

ANDREW JOHNSON 486 

Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 

BOOK REVIEWS 517 

Speck's and Bloom's Cherokee Dance and Drama— By 
Douglas L. Rights ; Wilburn's Junaluska — By Doug- 
las L. Rights; Hendricks's Biography of a Country 
Church — By Paul Murray ; Whitaker's, Cook's, and 
White's Centenial History of Alamance County — By 
Douglas L. Rights ; Easterby's The Colonial Records 
of South Carolina — The Journal of the Commons House 
of Assembly, November 10, 1736-June 7, 1739 — By 
Leonard W. Labaree ; Mason's James Harrod of Ken- 
tucky — By Bennett H. Wall ; McMahan's The People 
of Atlanta: A Demographic Study of Georgia's Capital 
City — By Paul M. McCain; Dyer's The Gallant 
Hood — By Alice B. Keith ; Proctor's Napoleon Bona- 
parte Broward — By Cecil Johnson ; Griffith's Yours 
Till Death: Civil War Letters of John W. Cotton — By 
Fannie Memory Farmer; Overdyke's The Know- 
Nothing Party in the South — By Fletcher M. Green; 
Harwell's Songs of the Confederacy — By Christian D. 
Kutschinski; Wallace's Appeal to Arms: A Military 
History of the American Revolution — By Hugh T. 
Lefler; Grummond's Envoy to Caracas: The Story of 
John G. A. Williamson, Nineteenth-Century Diplomat — 
By J. Fred Rippy. 

HISTORICAL NEWS 537 



The North Carolina 
Historical Review 

Vol. XXVIII JANUARY, 1951 Number 1 

THE GENESIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN 
NORTH CAROLINA 1 

By R. D. W. Connor 

Our society has been fortunate this year in the subject, "The 
Academy Movement in North Carolina,' ' chosen by our program 
committee for study, and equally fortunate in the manner in 
which the participants in the program have thus far discussed 
their topics. They have shown that this movement was the post- 
Revolution counterpart in the social history of the state of the 
post-Revolution political movement that it accompanied. Both 
were the products of the liberalizing trends of the social and 
political ideals expressed in the American Revolution. As Dr. 
Knight, in his Public Education in North Carolina, has pointed 
out: "With the American Revolution and the beginning of the 
national period, a new type of institution began to develop in 
the United States and to provide more or less extensive educa- 
tional facilities. This new school was the academy, the forerunner 
of the modern public high school. 

In the course of time, the academy displaced the colonial 
classical school which was largely reproduced from the English 
type, with its narrow curriculum and appeal to exclusive social 
classes. The academy, designed to meet the more comprehensive 
needs of its time, was largely a non-profit private institution, 
chartered by the state for public purposes and as such was 
usually granted certain special privileges and immunities to 
enable it the better to attain its objectives. Between 1776 and 
1825, the two strategic dates in the educational history of North 
Carolina, charters were granted to no less than 170 such acad- 



1 Presidential address delivered to the Historical Society of North Carolina at its meeting 
in Chapel Hill, November 4, 1949. Dr. Connor had planned to document the article before 
its publication but his death prevented his doing so. In view of this situation it is being 
published without the usual footnotes. The Editors. 

[1] 



83439^ 



2 The North Carolina Historical Review 

emies, while numerous others sprang up and operated for a time 
without the benefit of incorporation. The clientele of these 
academies was limited but the territorial area which they served 
was state-wide and therefore, although they catered chiefly to 
the more fortunate social and economic classes, their influence 
in the educational thinking of all classes was potent and lasting. 
They flourished until about 1850, after which they began to 
decline, gradually and reluctantly yielding the field to the public 
high school, which of course expressed more accurately modern 
ideals of education. Thus the academy was the bridge between 
the old conservative English classical school of colonial times 
and the more liberal American public high school of our own 
times. 

The academy, however, was something more in our educational 
structure than a bridge over which successive generations were 
to pass from one educational era to another. For nearly a cen- 
tury it was the vital spark that kept alive whatever aspirations 
the people of North Carolina cherished for adequate educational 
facilities and was especially a potent factor in the origin and 
development of institutions of higher learning. We have long 
been accustomed in North Carolina to trace the origin of our 
modern educational establishment, from the University at its 
apex to the primary school at its base, to the forty-first article 
of the constitution of 1776. But to suppose that to have been 
the case is to suppose that the constitution was born in a vacuum, 
whereas as a matter of fact the principles and ideals expressed 
in that document, especially in the forty-first article, had been 
germinating in the colony for almost a hundred years. The forty- 
first article, which required the legislature to establish a system 
of public schools, was racy of the soil of North Carolina and the 
end product of an ideal first expressed in statutory form more 
than a third of a century earlier. 

The first recorded effort by legislative action to establish a 
college in North Carolina at public expense was made in 1754. 
In that year, as you will recall, the Seven Years War between 
England and France broke out and immediately sucked their 
colonies in North America into the maelstrom. After the French 
had seized certain strategic points along the western frontier of 
Virginia, the crown ordered the other southern colonies to go 



Higher Education in North Carolina 3 

to Virginia's aid. Accordingly the General Assembly of North 
Carolina promptly passed an act, which was approved by the 
acting governor, Matthew Rowan, providing for the issuance of 
bills of credit in the sum of £40,000 for the purpose of equipping 
and dispatching a regiment of North Carolina troops to the aid 
of its sister colony, and "for other purposes therein mentioned." 
These other purposes were declared to be "to promote good 
order, Literature, and true Religion, in all the parts of this 
Province/ ' To implement this program, the legislature earmark- 
ed £6,000 of this sum to be used for "founding and endowing a 
Public School" in the colony, the term "Public School" obviously 
being used in the sense that it was applied to such institutions as 
Eton, Rugby, and Harrow in the mother country. But the war 
began badly for the English and in 1755, according to Governor 
Arthur Dobbs, the royal governor of North Carolina, "upon an 
extraordinary exigency during the War," the £6,000 earmarked 
for education, had been "borrowed and employed for his Ma- 
jesty's Service for military purposes." 

The General Assembly, strongly supported by Governor Dobbs, 
repeatedly sought to recover this sum for its original purpose 
but although "a Tax was laid for replacing it," the royal assent 
to the petition was withheld. In 1757 the British parliament ap- 
propriated £50,000 to reimburse the colonies of Virginia, North 
Carolina, and South Carolina for their extraordinary expendi- 
tures in support of the war, over and above their quotas. The 
next year the General Assembly of North Carolina petitioned the 
king for authority to use this colony's portion of the fund "for 
purchasing glebes" and "erecting and establishing a Free School 
in each County." Governor Dobbs recommended that the petition 
be granted but the Board of Trade, to which it was referred for 
consideration, reported that upon an examination of the act of 
1754 it found the Assembly's request "to be liable to great ob- 
jection" and instructed the Governor "to recommend to the 
Assembly to amend it in those points in which it was objected 
to." This the legislators refused to do and when they renewed 
their request in 1763, after the close of the war, the Board re- 
plied that "it was not fit to grant what the Assembly now desired 
until they thought proper to comply . . . with what had been 



4 The North Carolina Historical Review 

recommended to them." Since the legislature still refused to 
"comply," the plan of 1754 was abandoned and for this failure 
the General Assembly must bear equal responsibility with the 
Board of Trade. 

Just what the General Assembly and the Governor had in mind 
in recommending the establishment of a "Free School in each 
County" is not clear. It was certainly a different conception from 
that expressed in the act of 1754 which specifically provided only 
for the establishment and endowment of "a Public School" in 
the colony. Perhaps some light is thrown on this point by a letter 
from Governor Dobbs to the Board of Trade, dated January 22, 
1759, in which, urging that the assembly's petition be granted, 
he expressed the opinion that the free county schools should be 
"only for English scholars to learn to read, write, and account 
with some other branches of the Mathematicks," whereas the 
"one Public Provincial school for the languages, etc., would be 
enough to be endowed." 

Following this failure, the next effort to establish a college 
in North Carolina was made by the Presbyterians of Mecklen- 
burg County who in 1770 persuaded Governor William Tryon, 
who had succeeded Dobbs in 1765, to recommend to the General 
Assembly that it establish "a public seminary in some part of the 
back Country of this Colony for the education of youth." The 
legislature promptly complied by passing an act, which the 
governor approved on January 15, 1771, entitled "An Act for 
establishing and endowing of Queen's College in the Town of 
Charlotte in Mecklenburg County." So far as extant records re- 
veal, this was the first time the word "college" appears in any 
legislation enacted in North Carolina before the winning of in- 
dependence. The act emphasizes the urgent need for "a Seminary 
of Learning" in the colony at which students, "after having ac- 
quired at a Grammar School a competent knowledge of the 
Greek, Hebrew and Latin Languages" could "imbibe the prin- 
ciples of Science and Virtue" and "obtain under learned, pious 
and exemplary teachers in a collegiate or academic mode of in- 
struction a regular and finished education in order to qualify 
them for the service of their friends and Country." 

To place the proposed college "on a lasting and permanent 
basis," the act created "a Body Politic or Corporate, by the name 



Higher Education in North Carolina 5 

of the Fellows and Trustees of the incorporated Society, for 
founding, establishing and endowing Queen's College in Char- 
lotte Town," and vested in them the powers customarily granted 
to such corporations. Among them were the powers to elect a 
president, a treasurer, and "three or less number of Tutors" ; to 
adopt "rules and ordinances" for the government of the college 
which should correspond and be as near as may be agreeable 
to the Laws and Customs of the Universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge or those of the Colleges in America" ; and to grant 
"the degree of Batchelor and Master of Arts." 

This charter was granted by the General Assembly and ap- 
proved by the governor in direct violation of a standing royal 
instruction that no schoolmaster from Great Britain should be 
permitted "to keep school" in the province "without the license 
of the Lord Bishop of London" and that no person resident in 
the colony, "or that shall come from other parts shall be per- 
mitted to keep school in North Carolina" without the governor's 
license first obtained. In an attempt to make the establishment 
of a college under Presbyterian auspices palatable to the political 
and ecclesiastical powers in England, Governor Tryon had re- 
quired the assembly to insert in the charter a provision "that 
no person shall be admitted to be President of the said College 
but who is of the Established Church and who upon being nomi- 
nated and appointed by the Fellows and Trustees . . . shall be duly 
licensed by the Governor or Commander in Chief for the time 
being." The governor, however, did not insist that similar re- 
strictions be placed upon the selection of trustees or professors 
because he knew that those who were sponsoring the college 
would never agree to such restrictions and he especially desired 
not to offend so influential a class as that which was composed 
of the Presbyterian clergy and laity. 

Queen's College was to be supported in part by endowments 
from private sources and in part by revenues derived from pub- 
lic taxation. Authority was given to the corporation to acquire 
land and to accept donations of any kind from private persons. 
To supplement such donations, a duty of six pence per gallon was 
laid on all rum and other spirituous liquors "brought into and 
disposed of in Mecklenburg County" for a period of ten years, 



6 The North Carolina Historical Review 

These taxes were to be "collected, accounted for and paid to the 
Treasurer of the said College in the same manner and under 
the same Penalties and Restrictions as other duties on Spirituous 
liquors are now paid and collected by Law." 

In due time Governor Tryon dispatched the act to London 
with a strong plea for the royal assent. He knew that he stood 
a first class chance of receiving a stern reprimand for approving 
the act in violation of his instructions and plunged at once into 
a defence of his action. He pointed out in the first place that 
the act required the president of the college "to be of the Es- 
tablished Church and licensed by the Governor," and secondly 
that he had approved the act because he desired to show his ap- 
preciation for the timely aid which he had received from the 
Presbyterian clergy and laity in his recent campaign against the 
Regulators. 

But this plea was acceptable neither at Whitehall nor at St. 
James's. The Board of Trade expressed its sympathy with the 
governor's tolerant spirit but thought the king should not "add 
Incouragement to toleration" by assenting to an establishment in 
North Carolina which would give "great and permanent Ad- 
vantages to a sect of Dissenters from the Established Church 
who have extended themselves over that Province in very con- 
siderable numbers." Other provisions of the act were perhaps 
even more objectionable to the members of the Board of Trade, 
whose apprehensions were excited by the clause levying a duty 
on liquors "brought into and disposed of in Mecklenburg County" 
which, they complained, was so loosely drawn as to leave it doubt- 
ful "how far it may be strained to exempt Spirits manufactured 
within that County." At any rate the provision was clearly con- 
trary to the principles of English mercantilism, and was there- 
fore anathema to men whose religion began and ended in com- 
merce. Moreover, the Board also declared, quite properly, that 
"a Foundation professedly for general uses" should not be sup- 
ported "by a Tax partially imposed upon any one County in 
particular." And finally they reminded the governor that the 
charter was one of those acts of "such an unusual and extra- 
ordinary nature and importance" that, in compliance with a long- 
standing royal instruction, designed to assure royal control over 



Higher Education in North Carolina 7 

colonial legislation, he should not have approved it in the absence 
of a clause suspending its operation until the royal assent had 
been obtained. 

The Board of Trade accordingly turned thumbs down on the act 
and on April 22, 1772, the crown disallowed it. A year passed, how- 
ever, before this action was certified to Governor Josiah Martin, 
who had succeeded Tryon in 1771, and it was not until June 28, 
1773, that Martin by proclamation announced the crown's decision 
and warned all persons "to take notice and govern themselves 
accordingly." The Fellows and Trustees of Queen's College, how- 
ever, had already opened their college and with a change of name 
to Queen's Museum continued to operate it without benefit of 
charter or of liquor tax until 1777 when it was rechartered 
under the name of Liberty Hall Academy. 

The friends of Queen's College had lost their charter but not 
their determination to have a college to their own liking. Their 
chance came in 1776 when acts of the representatives of the 
people of North Carolina no longer required the approval of a 
king to make them valid. On October 15, 1776, the people of the 
recently declared independent state held an election to elect dele- 
gates to a provincial congress which had been called "for the 
express Purpose of framing a Constitution under the Authority 
of the People." The delegates elected from Mecklenburg County 
were Waightstill Avery, Hezekiah Alexander, John Phifer, Rob- 
ert Irwin, and Zachius Wilson. On November 1 "a general 
conference of the inhabitants of Mecklenburg" was held in 
the courthouse in Charlotte "for the express purpose of drawing 
up instructions" for the guidance of the county's delegates to 
the congress who were summoned to attend. The chairman of the 
meeting was John McKnitt Alexander who, together with dele- 
gates Avery and Hezekiah Alexander, had been a trustee of 
Queen's College. This conference adopted forty-two instructions 
for the guidance of the Mecklenburg delegates, one of which was 
as follows : 

"You shall endeavour to obtain a law to establish a college in 
this county and to procure a handsome endowment for the same." 

The congress met at Halifax, November 12, and the next day 
appointed a committee to draft a form of a constitution for the 



8 The North Carolina Historical Review 

now independent state. No records seem to be extant that throw 
any light on the contributions of individual members in the 
drafting and adoption of the constitution, but surely it does not 
put an unduly heavy strain on one's imagination to assume that 
the Mecklenburg delegates did not forget their instructions to 
return to Charlotte with a college in their pockets to be sup- 
ported "by a handsome endowment." But the Congress, for- 
tunately, took a broader view of the state's educational problem, 
to which it gave expression in Article 41 of the new constitution, 
ratified on December 18, 1776. That article required 

That a school or schools be established by the Legislature, for 
the convenient Instruction of Youth, with such Salaries to the 
Masters, paid by the Public, as may enable them to instruct at 
low prices ; and all useful Learning shall be duly encouraged and 
promoted in one or more Universities." 

Dr. Knight considers this article "the first signal victory for 
education in North Carolina," and one is not disposed to contro- 
vert this opinion. Certainly the article did visualize the entire 
state rather a single county as the logical unit for an adequate 
system of schools ; it left the state free in its own good time to 
throw off the shackles which medieval ecclesiasticism, social 
privilege, economic greed, and political power had imposed upon 
the education of youth. 

Thus the forty-first article heralded a significant social re- 
volution in North Carolina. But revolutions do not happen over- 
night, nor do they run their course in a single day. The forces 
that produce them must be sought in the remote past, their re- 
sults in the distant future. Thus a declaration of revolutionary 
principles and purposes is always an act of courage and a chal- 
lenge of faith. Such was the nature of Article 41, but how great 
the courage, how profound the faith, appears only when we real- 
ize the social, economic, and political conditions that overshadow- 
ed its birth. 

In 1776 North Carolina, making common cause with her sister 
states, had just entered upon what was evidently to be a long and 
devastating war — a war not only with the greatest military, 
naval, and economic power of the world, but also a civil war in 
which neighbor would fight against neighbor, brother against 



Higher Education in North Carolina 9 

brother, in bitter internecine strife — a war certain to leave in its 
wake legacies of economic destruction, social disintegration, and 
political animosities. 

In American history the two great years are 1776 and 1789 — 
the year of independence and the year of federal union. One 
tested the courage, the other challenged the faith of the American 
people. North Carolina shared both with the other states, but 
few if any of the others labored under equally discouraging 
conditions. At the latter date North Carolina's 390,000 people 
were thinly distributed over an area of more than 90,000 square 
miles. They were without racial, social, economic, or political 
unity. Social and political ostracism had driven thousands of 
her most substantial people into exile. A worthless currency had 
produced an uncontrollable inflation and a harvest of bank- 
ruptcy. Economic and social institutions had sickened and died. 
Agriculture had languished, industry had crumbled into ruin, and 
the stream of commerce had dried up. Not a newspaper had come 
off the state press in five years. The postal service had petered 
out. Churches and schools had ceased to function. Political con- 
ditions were chaotic. The western half of the state had seceded, 
set up housekeeping for itself as the State of Franklin, and was 
in armed rebellion against the mother state. Feebleness and in- 
efficiency characterized the administration of the state's govern- 
ment. It could not meet the just demands of its veterans who 
were clamoring for their promised bounties, it could not collect 
its revenues, it could not pay its bills nor redeem its credit. 

Hope of relief through the instrumentality of the federal 
government had proved a delusion. The Confederation itself had 
fallen into contempt. Its Congress had become a mere paper gov- 
ernment. Its treasury was bare, its credit sunk, its authority 
scorned, its army mutinous. The states snarled at each other 
across disputed boundary lines, knifed each other's industry, 
stifled each other's commerce, and there was no restraining hand 
to prevent their coming to blows. It is true that a new federal 
constitution had just come out of Philadelphia, but it was still 
an untried experiment and two states, Rhode Island and North 
Carolina, had refused to ratify it. Anarchy was just around the 
corner and the Old World sneered and jeered at American 
democracy. 



10 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Such were the conditions during the thirteen years from 1776 
to 1789. Nothing could be done under such circumstances to im- 
plement the mandate in the forty-first article of the constitution 
by appropriate legislation. An effort was made in 1784 when 
William Sharpe of Rowan County introduced in the house of 
commons a bill, citing in the preamble Article 41 in its support, 
"for establishing a University in this State to be distinguished 
by the title of the President and Trustees of the North Carolina 
University." But neither the time nor the popular will were pro- 
pitious and Sharpe's bill was smothered under an avalanche of 
legislative indifference. 

In the meantime the academy movement which had begun in 
1760, little understood and less noticed, had developed rapidly 
into a powerful and widespread force. By 1789 there were 
twenty-five of these institutions in the state, found in one-third 
of its counties from Currituck County in the east to Davidson 
County in what is now the State of Tennessee in the west. Their 
boards of trustees were composed of hundreds of the most in- 
fluential men in the state, their principals and teachers were 
eminent in the church, and their graduates were leaders in the 
affairs of both church and state. It required but little experience 
to convince these men that their academies could not long survive 
in a vacuum and would surely perish unless the existing vacuum 
at the top were soon filled by "one or more universities" in which 
the graduates of the academies could expect to find that their as- 
pirations for "useful Learning," beyond the grammar school level, 
were "duly encouraged and promoted." 

This idea was clearly expressed by Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, 
one of the most eminent of the leaders of the academy movement, 
in an announcement in 1793 of his purpose to open an academy 
at Thyatira, in Rowan County, near Salisbury. He stated that 
his school was "intended as a nursery for the University," that 
it would "teach young men the first rudiments of language and 
science, and so prepare them for a more complete education at 
the University, which it is hoped will ere long be prepared to 
receive them." The school, he explained, would be under the 
patronage of the "Trustees of the late Salisbury Academy." 
Thus the leaders of the academy movement, throughout the long 
years of social, economic, and political confusion, kept their ideas, 



Higher Education in North Carolina 11 

their hopes, alive and in the public consciousness. They did not 
forget the constitutional mandate to the General Assembly to 
establish a university, and they did not intend to let their repre- 
sentatives in the legislature forget it. 

It is a significant fact, and worthy of particular notice, that 
the interest of the leaders in the academy movement was in a 
university — not in a sublimated academy masquerading as a 
university. Between 1776 and 1789 the legislature granted char- 
ters to eighteen academies. The first of these "seminaries of 
learning," chartered soon after the adoption of the constitution 
of 1776, was none other than the former Queen's College, re- 
baptized in 1777 as "Liberty Hall in the County of Mecklenburg." 
One-third of its trustees had been trustees of Queen's. To fore- 
stall the possible cultivation of any ambition that Liberty Hall 
might cherish to become one of the state's universities, the Gen- 
eral Assembly inserted in its charter the following warning : 

That this Act, or any Thing therein contained, shall not ex- 
tend, or be understood to make this Academy one of those Semi- 
naries mentioned in the Constitution, to oblige this State to Sup- 
port any President, Professor or Tutor, of said Academy, or 
other Charge or Expence thereof whatsoever; this Act of In- 
corporation having been obtained at the earnest Prayer and 
Intreaty of the said Trustees and others who were desirous to 
contribute towards the Support thereof. 

A similar provision, quite as specific if not always so elaborate, 
was inserted in each of the charters granted to eleven other 
academies during the years 1777-1789. 

These academies served to keep people and legislatures alike 
mindful of Article 41, and from them radiated the influences 
that finally brought about the establishment of the University of 
North Carolina. The legislature of 1789 met in Fayetteville, 
November 2, 1789. The next day the house of commons appointed 
a committee "to report what bills of a public Nature are neces- 
sary to be passed into Laws at the present Session, and to prepare 
the same." Among its members were Matthew Locke of Rowan 
County and William R. Davie of Halifax. On November 9 Locke, 
chairman of the committee, reported that the committee recom- 
mended that a bill should be passed to establish a university and 
three days later Davie introduced his "Bill to establish an Uni- 



12 The North Carolina Historical Review 

versity in this State." Locke was a trustee of Liberty Hall Acad- 
emy established at Salisbury in 1784, and Davie, a former student 
at Liberty Hall Academy at Charlotte, was in 1789 a trustee of 
the Warrenton Academy. Another index to the influence of the 
academies in the establishment of the University is the fact 
that of the forty men who composed the original board of trustees 
twenty-two were or had been trustees of twenty-seven academies. 

The University of North Carolina is the child of the American 
Revolution. The social and political philosophy that inspired that 
epochal event in world history was derived not from the static 
ideals of the Old World but from the liberal ideals of the New 
World. The men of '76 knew well enough that philosophical con- 
cepts are but barren dreams unless they find concrete expression 
in living institutions; they knew that their ideals of popular 
government would certainly fail unless they replaced their Old 
World institutions with New World institutions. 

This idea was the inspiration that gave birth to the state uni- 
versity, whether in Pennsylvania, Georgia, or North Carolina. 
The mere fact of the establishment of a new university would 
not have been of any special significance. At the opening of the 
War of Independence there were nine colleges in the colonies. All 
but one of them were founded by religious sects and operated 
under sectarian authority, and all of them had been founded on 
the principle that higher education is a matter of private, not of 
public concern. Had the men who founded the University of 
North Carolina taken them for its model it would have been just 
another college of the Old World type. But they did not take 
them for its model. The University of North Carolina was found- 
ed as a public institution. It was endowed from public resources. 
It was governed by public officials. It was administered in the 
public interest and admitted of no sectarian control. Thus it has 
been from the beginning, and thus is broke sharply with tradi- 
tional concepts and blazed a new trail for higher education in 
America. "Originality in education," wrote the late William K. 
Boyd in 1919, was found "in the University of North Carolina." 

Educators and divines, trained in the old school, threw up their 
hands in amazement, if not in horror, at the new university's 
ideals and practices. In 1796 Joseph Caldwell, a recent graduate 
of Princeton, came to Chapel Hill as a professor. One of his close 



Higher Education in North Carolina 13 

friends at Princeton was John H. Hobart, afterwards Episcopal 
bishop of New York, who in a letter replying to one he had re- 
ceived from Caldwell describing his journey from Princeton to 
Chapel Hill, wrote that he understood the planters of Virginia 
were "men of hospitality and of open and polished manners," to 
which he added : 

"This I suppose is not the character of the planters of Chapel 
Hill. It is to be hoped, however, that the rays of light from your 
University, the sun of science will illumine the darkness of 
society, and chase away ignorance and vice. From what you say 
however, this hope will not be immediately realized. With all due 
respect to the faculty of the University of North Carolina, I 
must be permitted to observe that they constitute as motly a 
group as I have lately heard of — Presbyterians and Arians — 
Infidels and Roman Catholics. Bless me what a collection. The 
age of reason has surely come. Superstition and bigotry are 
buried in one grave. Philosophy and charity begin to bless the 
earth. Transporting thought. What a glory to the University 
of North Carolina that in her sacred seats they have first ap- 
peared." 

The University filled the vacuum, to which reference has al- 
ready been made, that had retarded the development of academies 
in the state. As an immediate result, the academy took on a new 
significance, the field of its work was greatly extended, and it 
moved forward to occupy them. Between the founding of the 
University in 1789 and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860, 
308 new academies were chartered and their curriculums ex- 
panded to meet the entrance requirements of the University. 
Some of them went so far as to arrange their vacations and terms 
so as to coincide with those of the University. But perhaps the 
highest card that an academy could play was to be able to an- 
nounce that some former professor of the University had joined 
its faculty. A notable example was the announcement in 1805 by 
the trustees of Pittsborough Academy that William Bingham, 
"one of the Professors in the University, has been engaged with 
them as President of the Academy." The salary problem at the 
University was as acute in 1805 as it has been ever since! 

It is not my purpose to enter into a history of the University ; 
my subject is "The Genesis of Higher Education in North Caro- 



14 The North Carolina Historical Review 

lina." We may almost say that the "genesis" came to a close with 
the establishment of the University in 1789, the laying of the 
foundation of its physical plant in 1793, and the opening of its 
doors to students in 1795. But we cannot abruptly dismiss the 
subject at this point. Education on a collegiate and university 
level in North Carolina was a logical outcome of the academy 
movement, and as the academies inspired the establishment of 
the University, so the University in turn gave a fresh stimulus 
to the academies that vastly increased their number and their 
usefulness. 

Moreover, the University is not the only institution of higher 
education which owes its establishment chiefly to the academy 
movement. Davidson College, Wake Forest, and Duke University 
all trace their genesis to it. Davidson and Wake Forest began as 
manual labor schools, a peculiar development of the academy 
that laid stress on manual labor rather than on the so-called cul- 
tural studies. Neither succeeded on that plan; the scheme of 
manual labor seems to have been popular with everybody except 
the students, whose opposition to it soon forced both institutions 
to abandon their original plans and to reorganize under charters 
that differed but little from those of the stereotyped academies. 
Under a new charter granted in 1838 the Baptist Literary Insti- 
tute became Wake Forest College, and in 1841 Davidson Manual 
Labor School was chartered as Davidson College. Duke Univer- 
sity traces its ancestral line back through Trinity College, Normal 
School, and Union Institute, to Brantley York's log schoolhouse 
in Randolph County, founded in 1838, and first incorporated in 
1841, as an academy in all but name. Ten years later, aspiring to 
become a teacher-training institute, it procured a charter from 
the legislature under the name of Normal College. Failing in this 
plan, the trustees in 1859 induced the North Carolina Conference 
of the Methodist Church to take it over as a church school which 
was re-chartered in 1859, and Trinity College, like Davidson and 
Wake Forest, became a typical liberal arts college. 

Thus the academy had fulfilled its mission and with the over- 
throw of the aristocratic ideal of education that followed the 
Civil War, making a more democratic system of education im- 
perative, it was forced to yield its place in the educational scheme 
of things to the modern public high school. 



CHARLES PETTIGREW, FIRST BISHOP-ELECT OF THE 
NORTH CAROLINA EPISCOPAL CHURCH 1 

By Bennett H. Wall 

Charles Pettigrew, more familiarly known to his contempora- 
ries as "Old Parson" Pettigrew, was born March 20, 1744, near 
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. His father, James Pettigrew, a 
Scotch-Irish immigrant, moved from Pennsylvania to Lunenburg 
County, Virginia, about 1757. While in Virginia Charles attended 
the famous classical school of Reverend Moses Waddel. The dili- 
gence with which the young student applied himself led the blind 
schoolmaster to reward his pupil with a present of several Greek 
books. 2 His schooling with Waddel was interrupted by the move 
of his family to Granville County, North Carolina, where James 
Pettigrew purchased 300 acres of land. Henry Pattillo, a Pres- 
byterian minister, noted teacher, and head of an academy, was 
pastor of a church in that county and the Pettigrews attended 
his church. It was Pattillo who shaped the education and possibly 
the career of Charles, the only member of the Pettigrew family 
to attend Pattillo's school. 3 The Pattillo-Pettigrew correspond- 
ence, after Charles moved to Edenton, reveals that the master 
had been an inquisitive as well as stimulating teacher and that 
he had pushed his students as fast as they could assimilate the 
work offered. 4 In 1768 James Pettigrew and all of the members 
of his family, except Charles, moved to the Abbeville District 
in South Carolina where the family put down more permanent 
roots. 

The reason Charles Pettigrew remained in North Carolina in 
1768 was that he had found profitable employment as a school 
teacher in Bute County. 5 In 1776 twenty-two year old Charles 
Pettigrew was employed by Philemon Hawkins and Mrs. Priscilla 
Macon to teach all students who applied but principally their 



1 A portion of this research was made possible through a grant from the University of 
Kentucky Research Fund Committee. 

2 James Waddel to Charles Pettigrew, February 10, 1804, Pettigrew Family Manuscripts, 
Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Hereinafter cited 
as Pettigrew MSS. 

3 James Johnston Pettigrew copy of the deposition of William Pettigrew, Pettigrew MSS. 
* Henry Pattillo to Charles Pettigrew, December 13, 1788, April 6, 1792; Charles Pettigrew 

to Henry Pattillo, May 12, 1792, Pettigrew MSS. 
B Now Franklin and Warren counties. 

[15] 



16 The North Carolina Historical Review 

sons, Joseph and Benjamin Hawkins and John and Nathaniel 
Macon. Pettigrew instructed these students for only a few years 
but kept in touch with them for many years. 6 Three of these men 
later entered Princeton and two of them became famous in the 
early national period of the United States. 7 

In 1766 Charles Pettigrew began to contact friends in Edenton, 
a leading seaport on the Albemarle Sound. From the William 
Parkes Company he purchased many items including classics, 
books of sermons, and commentaries. 8 His friends in the port of 
Edenton supplied him with the information that in 1770 a "Pub- 
lick" school had been established in that town and that the master 
of the school was required to be a churchman, recommended by 
a majority of the board of trustees and licensed by the governor. 9 
Pettigrew made application for a teaching position there, and in 
1773 he received his appointment as master of the "Publick 
School in Edenton" during the pleasure of Josiah Martin, the 
royal governor of North Carolina. 10 

As soon as he received the news of his appointment, Pettigrew 
resigned his position in Bute County and moved to Edenton. He 
became a member of the Church of England about this time and 
obtained a position as lay reader of St. Paul's Church in Edenton. 
Since several members of the vestry of St. Paul's Parish were 
trustees of the academy, it is reasonable to assume that he had 
contacted these men and made known to them his desire to become 
a minister of the Church of England. Whether or not that view 
is correct, it is known that while occupying the positions of 
schoolmaster and lay reader he engaged in the studies expected of 
candidates for ordination in that church. In the spring of 1775 he 
sailed for London where he was duly ordained deacon and priest 
by the bishops of London and Rochester. 

Pettigrew did not tarry in London, being anxious to return to 
the colony 11 and begin his ministerial tasks. He was assigned to 



a William Edward Dodd, Life of Nathaniel Macon (Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 
1903), 3. 

7 Nathaniel Macon served as a member of Congress, Speaker of the House, and United 
States Senator. Benjamin Hawkins served as United States Senator and Indian Agent. 

8 Account of Charles Pettigrew with William Parkes Company, September 1, 1771, Petti- 
grew MSS. 

9 William Lloyd De Rosset, Jr. (publisher and editor), Sketches of Church History in 
North Carolina, Addresses and Papers by Clergymen and Laymen of the Diocese of North 
and East Carolina (Wilmington, 1902), p. 17. Hereinafter cited as De Rosset, Church 
History. 

10 License as Teacher of the Edenton Publick School, June 23, 1773, Pettigrew MSS. 

11 Griffith J. McRee, Life and Correspondence of James Iredell (2 vols. New York: D. 
Appleton and Co., 1858), I, 241-242, Arthur Iredell to James Iredell, April 25, 1777, Herein- 
after cited as McRee, Iredell. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 17 

the Edenton parish by the Bishop of London, who was the "Dio- 
cesan of the Plantations." 12 Reverend Charles Pettigrew was to 
receive an annual salary of twenty pounds sterling as a mission- 
ary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts. He was the last missionary assigned to the colony of North 
Carolina. 

Charles Pettigrew arrived at Edenton late in the spring of 
1773. 13 The state of the Anglican Church in the colony at this 
time was most unsatisfactory from the standpoint of the devout. 
Numerous sects, especially the Baptists, Methodists, and Quakers, 
were making inroads on the Anglican parishes in the tidewater 
region. This condition was occasioned by two factors: first, the 
dissoluteness of many of the clergymen assigned to the colony and 
second, the rising tide of hostility to all things English. Many of 
the clergy drank and gambled, and in general neglected their 
parishes. Even Reverend Daniel Earl, Pettigrew's advisor and 
colleague, was popularly supposed to be more interested in his 
herring fishery than in the spiritual welfare of his congregation. 
On one occasion a wag placed this brief poem on the door of St. 
Paul's Church : 

A very fine church 
And a very fine steeple 
A Herring-catching parson 
And a wicked set of people 

Several years earlier Reverend C. E. Taylor, an Anglican min- 
ister sent to North Carolina by the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, denounced Earl in a letter to the Secretary of the 
Society. Earl had refused to let him preach in St. Paul's Church, 
although many members requested that he do so. Taylor charged 
that Earl collected excessive fees from the poor for such rites 
as baptism and administering sacraments to the dying. He urged 
the establishment of an American Episcopate ". . . if it tends to 
no other purpose than to take cognizance of the Clergy, some of 
whom (I am sorry to say) are the greatest scandal to religion 
we have . . . ." He concluded his diatribe by stating with regard to 



12 Arthur Lyon Cross, The Anglican Episcopate and The American Colonies (New York: 
Longmans, Green and Company, 1902), 4-36. 

13 Thomas Jones to Joseph Hewes, June 28, 1775, Hayes Collection (at Hayes near 
Edenton). Abstracted copy in Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill. 



18 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Earl ". . . the people themselves have a greater regard for Re- 
ligion than he " 14 According to other accounts, Reverend Earl 

also neglected the physical condition of his church. Despite this 
bleak outlook, Charles Pettigrew was anxious to begin preaching. 
Perhaps he believed that he could remedy or improve the state 
of religion in his parish. 

At the time of Pettigrew's arrival the Edenton parish to which 
he was assigned was so extensive that the regular pastor, Daniel 
Earl, preached at St. Paul's only one Sunday out of three and at 
other chapels the remaining Sundays. Pettigrew was prevailed 
upon to follow the same plan. "Notwithstanding which . . ." he 
took the "Barkley Parish in Perquimans, the adjoining county," 
for the year 1775 and agreed to ". . . make up the vacant Sundays 
by preaching on week days." 15 This parish contained five chapels 16 
and kept the young minister busy. He visited Barkley Parish 
by travelling by boat on the Albemarle Sound and on occasion he 
went by land, on the north shore of the sound. 17 The principal 
portion of his salary was subscribed by his parishioners. No 
record is available of the subscriptions of his Barkley parish- 
ioners but in 1775 those in Edenton supplemented his annual 
salary from the Society by more than seventy pounds. 18 

On June 19, 1776, the Vestry of St. Paul's Parish met and drew 
up a document known as the "Declaration of Independence of 
St. Paul's Parish." This document denied the right of Parliament 
to impose "Taxes upon these colonies" or 

to regulate the internal policy thereof and that all attempts by 
Fraud or Force to establish and exercise such claims and powers 
are violations of the Peace and Security of the People and ought 
to be resisted to the utmost and that the people of this Province 
singly and Collectively are bound by the Acts and Resolutions of 
the Continental and the Provincial Congress. 

The subscribers elected six delegates to the provincial congress 
and promised to support the acts and resolutions of this and sub- 
sequent congresses. Their defiant spirit was marked by the mild 



14 William Laurence Saunders (ed.), The Colonial Records of North Carolina, IX, 21. 
Hereinafter cited as Colonial Records. 

15 Colonial Records, X, 496. 

16 Colonial Records, X, 496. 

17 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Pettigrew, March 15, 1795, Pettigrew MSS. 

18 Salary Subscription List, 1775, Pettigrew MSS. It is interesting to note that one of his 
parishioners, James Iredell, a prominent political figure in North Carolina and later a 
justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, cautiously suffixed his subscription 
of four pounds with the statement "if he is living and can conveniently pay it." 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 19 

and conciliatory tone of the introductory sentence: "We the 
Subscribers professing our allegiance to the King and acknowl- 
edging the Constitutional executive power of government. . . ." 19 
The document can only by the most liberal interpretation be 
called a "Declaration of Independence. ,, It was merely an indica- 
tion that the vestry shared and endorsed the actions of the pro- 
vincial government. 

With the outbreak of hostilities the Anglican clergy in North 
Carolina and the remainder of the colonies were placed at a 
tremendous disadvantage in matters spiritual. In addition to the 
absentee control over spiritual matters exercised by the Bishop 
of London and the fact that most of the clergy were employed and 
partially paid by the Society, they labored under the theoretical 
disadvantage of supporting a legal establishment. Many of the 
clergy, feeling that the oath of allegiance to the king bound them, 
either left the colony or became outright Tories and the church 
organization virtually dissolved. 20 Finally, the very term "Eng- 
land" was detrimental to the church during the heat of the 
Revolution. 

Pettigrew's role during the Revolution is difficult to evaluate. 
During the first years of the war he continued to preach and pur- 
sue his ministerial duties with vigor. He was suspected of being a 
Tory by many of the radical Whigs but this would appear to be 
without foundation. Since he was affiliated with the Church of 
England, he felt bound by his oath to maintain his connection 
with that church. Furthermore, he needed his salary from the 
Society. This fact is substantiated by his effort to get the Society 
to honor a bill of exchange for his services as late as 1783. 21 In 
1776 Pettigrew reported to the Secretary of the Society that he 
". . . already baptized an hundred and twenty children, six grown 
persons and administered the Sacrement of the Lord's Supper to 
Eighteen Communicants . . ." and he took pride in this achieve- 
ment. He concluded his letter with the remark that he could 
"mention nothing with regard to public affairs for such letters" 



19 "Records of the Proceedings of the Vestry of St. Paul's Church, Edenton, North Caro- 
lina, 1701-1841," 263. (Typewritten copy in the possession of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Porter 
Graham.) Herinafter cited as "Vestry Records." 

20 Guion Griff is Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina (Chapel Hill: The University of 
North Carolina Press, 1937), 333. Hereinafter cited as Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina. 

^Reuben Harvey to Charles Pettigrew, April 14, 1784; correspondence, passim, Pettigrew 
MSS. 



20 The North Carolina Historical Review 

were "not allowed to pass." 22 The Society was proud of his ac- 
complishments, stating officially: "Throughout the most trying 
period [the Revolution] , however, the Reverend C. Pettigrew was 
enabled to continue his missionary journeys and to baptize 3,000 
infants within eight years/' 23 

Despite this closeness of his religious ties with England some 
evidence indicates that he was sympathetic to the cause of his 
fellow citizens. On November 28, 1777, upon request he held 
divine services before the state assembly. 24 A resolution granting 
him fifty pounds for performing this service passed the senate 25 
but the house refused to concur. 26 Just what occasioned this dis- 
agreement is not stated but conceivably Pettigrew's loyalty may 
have been questioned. 

In 1778 Reverend Daniel Earl resigned as rector of St. Paul's 
because of poor health. Charles Pettigrew was elected to succeed 
him and his parishioners subscribed 100 pounds to support their 
new rector, who was to preach on alternate Sundays. 27 Another 
major event of 1778 for Pettigrew was his marriage to Mary 
Blount, daughter of Colonel John Blount, and a close connection 
of several prominent North Carolina families. Blount, an en- 
thusiastic Whig, belonged to the group skeptical of Pettigrew' s 
loyalty to the cause of independence. Eventually he sought to 
force his son-in-law to take a stand. The occasion was the con- 
tinuing success of the English effort to gain control of the south- 
ern ports of Savannah and Charleston and to use them as bases 
to strike inland. This caused many persons to be drafted who 
had not been too involved in the actual war before 1780. Colonel 
John Blount was very desirous that his son-in-law serve and one 
source indicates that he promoted Pettigrew's call to the colors 
out of malice. Richard Templeman wrote Charles Pettigrew : 

I did not imagine Colonel Blount would carry his vindictive dis- 
position so far — but be it with him. I hope, as you are determined 
to march with the militia, youl meet every indulgence thats in 
the power of Genl Gregory or the commanding officer to afford 
you, and that youl act the philosopher in parting with your fam- 



22 Colonial Records, X, 496. 

23 Classified Digest of the Records of the Society for the Propagation of The Gospel in 
Foreign Parts, 1701-1892 (London: 1893), 25. 

24 Walter Clark (ed.), The State Records of North Carolina, XII, 149. Hereinafter cited 
as State Records. 

^State Records, XII, 155. 

28 State Records, XII, 321-322. 

27 Salary Subscription Lists, 1778, Pettigrew MSS. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 21 

ily and going thro the fatigues of a Summers Campaign in a 
Southern climate. 28 

Pettigrew was not anxious to serve and as soon as he was drafted 
he secured a substitute and was discharged. On the back of the 
discharge he noted, "a $7,500 [sic] touch — the price of a clergy- 
man's exemption from military service in North Carolina." 29 It 
is possible that he was not in good health at this time, for several 
accounts indicate that his church was in a dilapidated state, 
which condition Charles Pettigrew would never permit when he 
was in good health. But 1781 brought the Revolution to a close and 
in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed officially ending the war. 

It is interesting to note that during the Revolution and while 
Pettigrew was rector of St. Paul's he kept an account of the 
"Ballances due ... by subscription" and that in some cases he 
scaled down individual subscriptions. Several of his parishioners 
paid their subscriptions in produce, and in one case the rector 
accepted barrelled herring in lieu of currency. When the sub- 
scribers failed to pay their pledges steps were taken to collect 
them. Each subscription list contains entries such as "declines to 
pay," "Judgment," and "appealed." 30 Since the parish taxes lev- 
ied by the church vestry carried the sanction of law, there is 
little doubt that these subscriptions were collectible and that the 
only legal means of non-payment was to plead insolvency. 31 

Pettigrew lived in or near Edenton during the course of the 
Revolution. On the two Sundays that he did not serve his Eden- 
ton parish, he preached in the country chapels nearby. 32 In 1778, 
for conducting services at St. Paul's Church on every other Sun- 
day, he was to receive a sum ". . . agreed on by the Parties that 
the several Subscriptions shall increase or diminish at the com- 
mencement of every year according to the Rise or fall of the 
money, so as to keep it equal to one hundred pounds in the year 
one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four." 33 This provided 
him with a reasonable income and was supplemented by the con- 
gregations where he preached the remainder of his time. But in 



28 Richard Templeman to Charles Pettigrew, January 10, 1780, Pettigrew Papers, North 
Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh. Hereinafter cited as Pettigrew 
Papers. 

29 Charles Pettigrew's Discharge from Military Service, June 27, 1780. Pettigrew MSS. 
80 Subscription Lists, 1775, 1778, 1781, Pettigrew MSS. 

31 "Vestry Records," 1-271. See also The Religious and Historic Commemoration of Two 
Hundred Years of St. Paul's Parish, Edenton, N. C. (Goldsboro, North Carolina, 1901), 5. 
^Salary Subscription Lists, 1778, 1783, Pettigrew MSS. 
88 Salary Subscription Lists, 1778, Pettigrew MSS, 



22 The North Carolina Historical Review 

1783 the new subscription list for his parish in Edenton amount- 
ed to only forty-eight pounds and ten shillings. 34 This amount 
was insufficient for a family of four and it is not improbable that 
this reduction precipitated a desire to leave Edenton. 

Another factor in his growing desire to change parishes was 
the fact that the task of supplying so extensive a parish as St. 
Paul's placed a strain on his health. An attack of spleen and a 
raging temperature prevented his attending a conference con- 
ducted by Francis Asbury early in 1784. He apologized for his 
nonattendance : "I had a great desire of being at your conference, 
and to have taken a small circuit some farther to the northward 
in quest of a more healthy situation as I am determined to leave 
this place." 35 This is the first indication that Pettigrew had made 
a decision to leave Edenton. Possibly the scarcity of competent 
clergymen was another factor rendering him dissatisfied, for he 
and his fellow clergymen were much in demand and opportuni- 
ties to move to other parishes were numerous. 

This state of indecision and the general religious listlessness 
of his parishioners hampered Pettigrew' s religious activities. 
While he was away at St. Eustatia in 1785, his parish was visited 
by Dr. Thomas Coke, a renowned Methodist leader. Coke re- 
ported : 

I went to Edenton, a most wicked place. Here Mr. Pettigrew 
preaches. The people in general seemed to prefer the courthouse, 
which is an elegant place, so I went there accordingly, and preached 
to a large congregation . . . there seemed nothing but wickedness 
and dissipation in the tavern at which I put up .... I suppose Mr. 
Pettigrew does as much good in Edenton as a little chicken. 36 

Bishop Coke did not know that Pettigrew had made plans to 
move to Virginia because of the virtual collapse of his church 
organization in the Edenton area. 

About a year prior to Coke's visit the vestry of Lynnhaven 
Parish, Kempsville, Princess Anne County, Virginia, approached 
Pettigrew on the subject of moving to that parish. Peter Single- 
ton wrote that they would get more subscriptions as soon as the 
parishioners learned that Pettigrew was taking the parish. 
Singleton pointed out that a dwelling house had been located and 



34 Salary Subscription Lists, 1783, Pettigrew MSS. 

85 Charles Pettigrew to Francis Asbury, May 1, 1784, Pettigrew MSS. 

86 W. L. Grissom, History of Methodism in North Carolina (Nashville, 1905), 163. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 23 

that the plantation Pettigrew had considered purchasing was still 
for sale. He concluded his letter by commenting "N.B. Most of the 
people of the county (Baptists excepted) earnestly wish to get 
you settled in this county." 37 

Pettigrew expected to move to Lynnhaven Parish early in 1785. 
Throughout the fall he corresponded with Singleton, William 
White, Phillip Bruce, and others, and in all of his letters he ex- 
pressed confidence and satisfaction with his decision to leave 
Edenton. Before moving he hoped to stimulate his health by a 
short sea voyage. He wrote to Francis Asbury : 

I have it in contemplation to go on a voyage to sea before I 
move to which my Yoke fellow has been much averse till Lately, 
& now the great obstacle will be that of geting my own consent, 
which I find will be very Difficult — parting with my family is a 
most Disagreeable thought. 38 

To Edward Drumgoole he gave his reasons for taking a voyage : 

I have agreed to move to Princess Anne, Virginia and, as it 
would not be safe to move into a more cold and bleak air, in so 
relax'd a Habbit to say nothing about the honesty of taking the 
charge of a parish, while unable to do the Duties incumbent, & 
which would be their undoubted Claim ; I have come to a resolu- 
tion of making a voyage to the West Indies . . . 39 

Apparently Pettigrew thought that the final decision regarding 
the date of moving was a personal matter, for he had made no 
definite plans to move as late as December. He ignored a warning 
note in a letter from Peter Singleton that there were other appli- 
cants for the job 40 and continued to plan his voyage. 

In January he sailed by way of Ocracoke for St. Eustatia. To 
his wife he wrote, "I know the Occocockers will be glad to see me 
as they will be ready freighted with Children to baptize & 
I hope I shall be able to give them a lecture, and to gratify them 
in that particular." 41 While at St. Eustatia he preached in town 
at the request of the governor and the principal gentlemen. 42 
Pettigrew had taken two of his slaves from his plantation to St. 



87 Peter Singleton to Charles Pettigrew, August 16, 1784, Pettigrew Papers. 

38 Charles Pettigrew to Francis Asbury, May 1, 1784, Pettigrew MSS. 

89 Charles Pettigrew to Edward Drumgoole, September 22, 1784, Drumgoole MSS., Southern 
Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill. Hereinafter cited 
as Drumgoole MSS. 

40 Peter Singleton to Charles Pettigrew, December 30, 1784, Pettigrew Papers. 

°- Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Pettigrew, January 24, 1785, Pettigrew MSS. 

42 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Pettigrew, March 11, 1785, Pettigrew MSS. 



24 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Eustatia to sell. His failure to make a speedy sale delayed his 
return for over a month. 43 

When he returned home in May he found several letters from 
members of the Lynnhaven Parish indicating that other clergy- 
men had applied for the position. Peter Singleton had reported 
late in March, 1785, that the vestry was still for him although a 
Reverend James Simpson was "politicing" to get the job. Single- 
ton explained: 

The vestry has no further meaning, that I know of, by inclos- 
ing you a Copy of an Act of Assembly incorporating the church 
& c, than of fixing the time you shall be here to the 1st of May, 
than to expedite your removal. . . , 44 

But Pettigrew did not receive this letter of March 21, telling him 
to come before the first of May, until he returned. In his absence, 
his plans for moving to the new parish were carried out. As an 
advance guard he had sent two of his slaves to begin planting a 
corn crop. 45 Hence he was highly indignant to learn that his fail- 
ure to assume his post as rector of Lynnhaven Parish before the 
first of May had caused the vestry to come "to a Determination 
to vote for a Minister, & have this Day [May 6] elected the Rev'd 
Simpson to fill the sacred office." 46 He found little comfort in 
Peter Singleton's letter terming the treatment of the vestry 
"dishonorable" and pointing out that Simpson had been elected 
"by some secret and undue means." 47 Writing while still angry, 
Pettigrew charged the vestry with breach of faith : 

Your letter of ye 6th inst. tells me the disagreeable consequence 
of my not being able to comply with your limitations respecting 
the Time of my removal to your parish. It found me destitute of 
either House or home, or ground in the County for a crop the 
cur't year, and using all the industry I could to get away, agree- 
able to engagement with you, which engagement was mutual, & 
without Limitation as to Time, & made with this reserve on my 
part, 'That I should not remove to ye charge till I had returned 
from a voyage to sea for the Benefit of my health-. And I beg 
leave to observe, that I am not conscious of such guilt, incured by 
my unavoidable non-complyance, as deserved final Rejection, 



48 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Pettigrew, March 11, 1785, Pettigrew MSS. 
44 Peter Singleton to Charles Pettigrew, March 21, 1785, Pettigrew Papers. 

46 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Pettigrew, March 11, 1785, Pettigrew MSS. 

49 Charles Williamson and John Cornick, Church Wardens, to Charles Pettigrew, May 6, 
1785, Pettigrew Papers. 

47 Peter Singleton to Charles Pettigrew, May 7, 1785, Pettigrew Papers. William White 
expressed the same view. May 7, 1785, Pettigrew Papers. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 25 

after two orders of Vestry in my favor, & without anything hav- 
ing been alledged whereon you could rationally found a Doubt of 
my integrity ,-& more especially, as your Determination must 
necessarily subject me to many inconveniences at this season of 
the year'. . . if your zeal for the Devotional part of Religion was 
so ardent, as not to suffer you to wait a few Days, may he be so 
fortunate as to keep it always alive . . . 48 

It was small comfort some time later to learn that the choice of 
Simpson was not wise. 49 

The parson nursed his injured pride and late as it was did not 
fail to plant a crop on his farm near Edenton. In 1786 he moved 
to Harvey's Neck, Perquimans County, where he remained for 
two years. In 1788 he moved to Belgrade Plantation, where he 
was to spend most of the remaining years of his life. This planta- 
tion was somewhat remote from his former homes, being accessi- 
ble to Edenton only by the Albemarle Sound. During this interval 
his religious activities were limited by his interest in agriculture, 
the death of his wife, and poor health. While many of his friends 
expressed dissatisfaction that so much talent should be confined 
to so limited a field, Pettigrew wrote with some pleasure concern- 
ing his services : 

I preach chiefly at home to a few attentive hearers, with almost 
no exertion. When I used to preach to great crowds I generally 
incurred a fever. If I do little good, I am content to receive 
nothing for it. However I sometimes find myself very happy in 
a kind of unstudied paternal address, & seeing the appearance of 
correspondent sensations excited in my hearers. They are gen- 
erally good morallists & good neighbours. 50 

The fact that the ablest minister in the state could retire from 
active service with such indifference is indicative of the low estate 
of the church in North Carolina. Additional evidence of the de- 
cline of the church is found in the correspondence of other mini- 
sters with Pettigrew. Henry Pattillo wrote to Pettigrew recom- 
mending an autumnal preaching trip among his "old connections" 
in Granville. 51 Dr. Leonidas Cutting, rector of Christ's Church, in 
New Bern, wrote : 



48 Charles Pettigrew to Charles Williamson and John Cornick, May 9, 1785, Pettigrew 
Papers. 

49 Peter Singleton to Charles Pettigrew, April 26, 1787, Pettigrew Papers. 

50 Charles Pettigrew to Henry Pattillo, January 9, 1789, Pettigrew MSS. 
61 Henry Pattillo to Charles Pettigrew, December 13, 1788, Pettigrew MSS. 



26 The North Carolina Historical Review 

How it may be in other Parishes or congregations in this state 
I know not ; but here by the Expiration of an Old Law a few years 
ago, we have no Church Wardens, Vestry-men, nor any Officer to 
take any Charge or care of the Church. Whatever meetings there- 
fore we may hold of the Church will be Spontaneous, unbacked by 
proper authority ; This is a defect much lamented but which can- 
not be remedied without an application to assembly. 52 

The church in the southern United States at the close of the 
Revolution was indeed in a deplorable condition. "The then hated 
name of 'England' was a great drawback in itself. Furthermore, 
the church had no organization. Its membership was demoralized, 
and for the most part indifferent. Worst of all it had no Episco- 
pate." 53 Among the other reasons for the decline of the church 
was the withdrawal of funds from the American Mission by the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. This 
was occasioned by a clause in the Society's charter which per- 
mitted it to work only with the "Foreign plantations" within the 
British Empire. 54 The legal disestablishment of the church was a 
direct result of the Revolution. This deprived the clergy of their 
maintenance and curtailed many of their activities. These factors 
coupled with the bitter opposition of the Presbyterians and Bap- 
tists in the back country rendered the situation critical. 

Immediately after the close of the Revolution, a general re- 
organization of the Episcopal Church in the United States was 
undertaken which resulted "eventually in the formation of the 
general constitution which has formed the basis of the Church's 
national life ever since. ... Its most important leader, the co- 
ordinator of its various elements was William White." 55 The need 
for resident bishops was more pronounced at this time (1783) 
than it had been at any previous period. Several state and sec- 
tional conventions had been held, principally in the northern and 
middle states. At a meeting in New York, in October, 1784, "The 
Convention recommended certain principles of union to the states 
. . . and that the first meeting of the proposed General Convention 
should be held in Philadelphia during September, 1785." 56 This 



62 Dr. Leonidas Cutting: to Charles Pettigrew, December 13, 1788, Pettigrew Papers. 

68 Marshall DeLancey Haywood, "Charles Pettigrew," in Samuel A'Court Ashe, Stephen 
Beauregard Weeks, Charles L. Van Noppen, editors, Biographical History of North Carolina 
(8 vols. Greensboro, 1905-1917), VI, 400. Hereinafter cited as Haywood, "Pettigrew." 

54 William Wilson Manross, A History of the American Episcopal Church (New York: 
Columbia University Studies, 1938), 182-183. Hereinafter cited as Manross, Episcopal Church. 

55 Manross, Episcopal Church, 187. 
66 Manross, Episcopal Church, 195. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 27 

convention contained representatives from the middle states and 
from Virginia, South Carolina, and Maryland. White was elected 
president and a committee was appointed : 

to draft a constitution, revise the liturgy, and formulate a plan 
for obtaining the episcopate. . . . The general convention was to 
address the English Bishops and request them to confer Epis- 
copal orders on such men as might be chosen by the state con- 
ventions. The state conventions were advised to take special pains 
to make it clear that the candidates were elected with the con- 
currence of the laity. 57 

Another convention met in 1786 and certified three men for 
consecration : William White, Samuel Provoost, and David Grif- 
fith. White and Provoost were consecrated in England in Febru- 
ary, 1787; Griffith remained at home because of personal diffi- 
culties within his diocese. The next convention met in July, 1789, 
and effected a more solid national organization. A committee of 
correspondence to establish connections with those states not 
represented had been appointed in 1785. This committee was con- 
tinued by the convention of 1789. 58 

Whether or not the clergy of North Carolina was aware of this 
activity is not known. The attempt to revive the Episcopal 
Church in that state came as a direct result of a letter which Dr. 
White, as head of the correspondence committee, addressed to 
Governor Samuel Johnston of North Carolina. White expressed 
a wish that the clergy of the Episcopal Church there "would 
meet at some convenient place and consult among themselves as 
to what steps should be adopted to revive the church." 59 Governor 
Johnston turned this letter over to his former rector, Charles 
Pettigrew, who was the most accessible member of the clergy. 
Stimulated by the call, Pettigrew came from retirement and im- 
mediately took action. He described the results of his activity to 
Dr. William White: 

As a convention could not be called by the Governor, consistently 
with the principles of our free republican government, which his 
Excellency was pleased to communicate to me, I entered into a 
literary correspondence with my clerical Brethren in which I 



57 Manross, Episcopal Church, 187. 

58 Manross, Episcopal Church, 199; see also William Stevens Perry (ed.), Journals of the 
General Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in The United States, 1785-1885 (2 
vols. Claremont, New Hampshire, 1884), I, 85-144. Hereinafter cited as Perry, Journals. 

m De Rosset, Church History, 182. 



28 The North Carolina Historical Review 

proposed a meeting at this Village [Tarborough] .... My proposi- 
tion met their general approbation, so that I expected our small- 
Body to have been present, which would have consisted of only six 
individuals; but to my great mortification; I have been met by 
only one of them. Yet as my situation was the most remote (I 
believe) of any, and the pressing necessity of our Church urged 
us to do something, we proceeded to business, by way of begin- 
ning, with the joint aid of two gentlemen, of distinguished 
merit and reputation; & hope our proceedings will meet with 
at least the indulgence of your committee. 60 

Pettigrew explained the non-attendance of his brother mem- 
bers of the clergy at this June convention of 1790 thus: "The 
clergy .... find it necessary to engage in the business of 
farming, for the support of their families, as contribution has 
ever been found so precarious a dependence ; and this is perhaps 
the most busy season of the year, which I did not attend to when 
I made the appointment." 61 The meeting at Tarboro was attended 
by Charles Pettigrew and James L. Wilson of the clergy and John 
Leigh, M.D., and Samuel Clements of the laity. They resolved 
that their body did "accede and approve" of the constitution 
formulated at Philadelphia in 1785. They replied to the circular 
letter of the committee of correspondence and called a new con- 
vention to meet at Tarboro on November 12, 1790. It was agreed 
that the future state conventions should be constituted of all or- 
dained clergymen and of one member from each of the six bor- 
ough towns as well as one member chosen by the laity of each 
county where there was no regularly ordained clergyman. 62 A 
committee composed of Pettigrew, Wilson, and Dr. Leigh (three- 
fourths of the number present) tersely summed up the condition 
of the Episcopal Church : 

The state of our church is this commonwealth is truly deplor- 
able from the paucity of its clergy & the multiplicity of opposing 
Sectaries, who are using every possible exertion to seduce its 
members to their different communities. This grievance however, 
we hope will be reduced in time, by the energy of the faithful 
labourers, and we esteem it a most fortunate circumstance that 
providence has advanced a gentleman of as well known integrity 
& zeal for the interest of the church and of religion in general, 



60 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, June 6, 1790, Pettigrew MSS. See also Charles 
Pettigrew to Reverend McDougall, November 9, 1789, Pettigrew MSS. 

61 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, June 6, 1790, Pettigrew MSS. 

62 "Proceedings of the First Convention of the Clergy held at Tarborough" (copy), PettJr 
grew MSS. Printed also in De Rosset, Church History, 417-418. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 29 

as the Right Rev. Doctor White of Philadelphia to preside in the 
Episcopal chair. . . . 63 

The call for the second convention was printed in the news- 
papers of the state. 64 This probably effected the increase in the 
membership of the convention which met at Tarborough on 
November 12 and 13, 1790. There were present at this meeting 
fifteen delegates: six from the clergy and nine from the laity. 
Delegates were appointed to the General Episcopal Convention to 
be held in New York in September, 1792. It was agreed to hold 
an annual convention to be styled "State Convention of the Epis- 
copal Clergy and Laity/' 65 Apparently this second convention was 
not graced by Pettigrew's presence, for in December, 1790, Wil- 
son wrote him that the convention "had small attendence; and 
. . . proposed more business than could be accomplished, much of 
which 'was' Deferred to the convention," which was to meet in 
Tarborough in October, 1791. 66 The members attending from the 
western part of the state attempted to have the next convention 
called at Hillsboro in order to effect the election of a bishop. With 
regard to the election of a bishop, Dr. John Leigh wrote Petti- 
grew: 

I think it is a business which may be deferred for some time 
yet; but shou'd it become necessary, I see no reason why we 
cannot appoint, or recommend, one of those now in the state. 
If the appointment of a Bishop will tend in any degree to raise 
once more the fallen state of our Church, I'm clearly convinced 
that it should be done. 

This is the object to which the attention of the Clergy as well as 
Laity, shou'd be drawn. . . . The different persuasions of Religion, 
which have much for their object the destruction of the Church, 
are growing into greatness daily; & altho' their Doctrines are 
absurd, altho' the Supporters are among the most illiterate . . . 
Religion of whatever kind, can only be sustained by the zealous 
Exertions of its Supporters. ... I fear the mode adopted by our 
last convention will be productive of no good. No subscriptions 
or Donations have yet reached me, nor have I heard of any one 
promised; although I had reason to expect some aid from the 
members appointed. 67 



63 Committee of North Carolina convention to committee of General Convention, June 5, 
1790, Pettigrew MSS. 

64 De Rosset, Church History, 417-418. 

65 "Minutes of the North Carolina Episcopal Convention of 1790," De Rosset, Church 
History, 421. 

66 "Minutes of the North Carolina Episcopal Convention of 1790," De Rosset, Church 
History, 421. 

67 Dr. John Leigh to Charles Pettigrew, March 29, 1791, Pettigrew Papers. 



30 The North Carolina Historical Review 

He was probably willing to accept Pettigrew's view that the 
"clergy are . . . hard and mercenary." 68 

The third convention, called to meet in October, 1791, was not 
attended by sufficient members to organize and transact the 
necessary business. Pettigrew was unable to attend because of his 
"being seized with a tertian ague, two or three day's" before 
he planned his departure. 69 James L. Wilson, appointed delegate 
to the General Episcopal Convention, was detained by "contrary 
winds" and did not arrive in Philadelphia until September 28, 1792, 
some few days after the convention had adjourned. 70 Wilson was 
the only North Carolina delegate to go to Philadelphia to a 
general convention during the lifetime of Charles Pettigrew. 

In 1792 Pettigrew was informed of his election to the board 
of trustees of the newly established University of North Caro- 
lina. 71 This appointment served to complicate what must have 
been a rather full life. He wrote Dr. White that he had a great 
desire to attend the meeting of the General Convention, but : 

I am also importuned to be at Hillsborough at y t very juncture, 
at a meeting of a Board of Trustees for a University of this 
state. The Business that claims my presence there is particularly 
fixing on the place where s'd university shall be situated and 
unless the eastern members generally attend, it will probably be 
carried too far westward. This is an object in wch I feel myself 
also a good deal interested. 72 

No doubt he followed his lifelong tendency to place spiritual 
things first and attended to his churches; at least he did not 
attend the meeting of the trustees. 73 

Little is known of the North Carolina Episcopal convention of 
1793. There was no record kept of the proceedings and few 
sources shed any light whatever on the meeting. Furthermore 
the evidence about the convention is contradictory. Pettigrew 
wrote, "I am this far on my way back from Tarborough. . . . 
There was no Convention." 14 ' But a letter from Dr. Solomon 



68 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. John Leigh, June 15, 1790, Pettigrew MSS. 

69 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, March 12, 1792 (copy), Pettigrew MSS. De 
Rosset, Church History, 188-189. 

70 Perry, Journals, I, 173. 

71 "Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina" (unpublished 
MSS., University of North Carolina Library), I, 36. 

72 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, March 12, 1792, Pettigrew MSS. 

73 "Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina," I, 41-51. 

74 Charles Pettigrew to Miss Mary Lockhart, October 3, 1793, Pettigrew MSS. [italics mine.] 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 31 

Hailing written to Pettigrew on December 16, 1793, specifically 
states that there was a convention. 

It was to me one of the greatest disappointments that you could 
not meet with us in Convention, and I am sincerely sorry for the 
cause of your non-attendance. It will exceed the bounds of a 
letter to acquaint you with all the business we went through 
but . . . the following short abstract . . . will afford you some 
idea of our transactions. 75 

Robert Johnston Miller, in a letter written years later to Dr. 
Francis Lister Hawks, stated that a convention met and appoint- 
ed a standing committee and published a circular "To those of 
the same persuasion in each county of the state," that called 
attention "to the decay of the church and requested that the 
laity gather and in the absence of any Pastor have a member 
of the Vestry read the service of the day." 76 Since there is no 
account of any other convention meeting at Tarborough in 1793, 
Pettigrew apparently confused the time of the meeting. 

One of the matters discussed at this meeting was the selection 
of a bishop for North Carolina. This was to be done in accordance 
with the plan of the General Convention of 1785 that encouraged 
the election of bishops by the state conventions. 77 The North 
Carolina group, however, failed to elect a bishop. Hailing ex- 
plained the inaction as follows : 

You may reasonably suppose, that it would have been inadvisable 
in us to appoint a Bishop-elect. 

The smallness of our number would have subjected Him to re- 
proach, and our Church also, — if anything possibly can, after it 
has evidenced such a want of zeal; for the professors of our 
religion, have not on this occasion even shewed themselves to be 
lukewarm. 78 

With regard to the person for the office, Hailing said "I believe 
it will be the general wish that you should be elected to the 
Episcopacy of North Carolina. My exertions shall not be spared 
on this occasion; and you must not refuse, consider it a call 
from Heaven and reflect on your former vows." 79 The convention 



75 Solomon Hailing to Charles Pettigrew, December 10, 1793, Pettigrew Papers. 

76 De Rosset, Church History, 189-191, 423-425. 

77 Perry, Journals, I, 23-25. 

78 Solomon Hailing to Charles Pettigrew, December 16, 1793, Pettigrew Papers. 

79 Solomon Hailing to Charles Pettigrew, December 16, 1793, Pettigrew Papers. 



32 The North Carolina Historical Review 

of 1793 called a meeting for the last Wednesday in May, 1794, 
to form a constitution and elect a bishop. 

One of the tangible results of the convention of 1790 was the 
ordination of Solomon Hailing, 80 who followed Dr. Leonidas 
Cutting as rector of Christ's Church in New Bern. It was Hailing 
who persuaded the standing committee to call a convention to 
meet in May, 1794. 81 He was supported by Pettigrew who, how- 
ever, held out little hope of success. 

I most ardently wish, that your indeavours may succeed to 
your most sanguine expectations, But such is the coldness, & 
such the inattention of those in general, who profess themselves 
members of our Church, with respect to Things of a religious 
nature, that I am affraid, your so laudable exertions to draw to- 
gether a full convention, will not be crowned with suitable suc- 
cess. 82 

To Pettigrew, Dr. Halling's remarks concerning the possibility 
of his being elected bishop were "far from flattering" and were 
truly "mortifying" to him. He feared that he would prove in- 
adequate for those duties. 83 

In May, 1794, the convention met at Tarborough, with at- 
tendance higher than at any previous time. Pettigrew opened 
the session with a sermon. The convention selected delegates 
to the General Convention; elected Charles Pettigrew bishop of 
North Carolina Diocese; and drew up a constitution for the 
government of the body. Resolutions endorsing the bishop-elect 
were signed by five members of the clergy and eight members 
of the laity. 84 The bishop-elect reported to Doctor William White : 

It was thought advisable at our Episcopal Convention in this 
State for last year, to frame a constitution for the particular 
government of the church in this state, which was accordingly 
done. 85 

The General Convention required that the members of the 
convention recommending a person for consecration certify that 
they had known him personally for three years. 86 Because of the 



80 De Rosset, Church History, 422. 

81 De Rosset, Church History, 422. 

82 Charles Pettigrew to Solomon Hailing, February 2, 1794, Pettigrew Papers. 

83 Charles Pettigrew to Solomon Hailing, February 2, 1794, Pettigrew Papers. 

84 De Rosset, Church History, 426-433. 

85 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, June 9, 1795, Pettigrew Papers. 

86 Perry, Church History, I, 55. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 33 

difficulties of communication, the members of the North Caro- 
lina convention were unable to comply with this canon. A com- 
mittee was appointed to draw up a form which the members 
could conscientiously sign and at the same time endorse the 
candidate. Pettigrew was afraid that the deviation from the 
prescribed form would not be allowed. When he submitted the 
testimonial to Dr. White he said: "I could add a testimonial or 
Certificate from the good people of the District of Edenton, 
where I have lived and preached now about twenty years, should 
you think it necessary." 87 In reply White assured Pettigrew that 
the depositions of the committee substantially conformed to the 
second canon of 1789, which had not been seen by the North 
Carolina clergy. 88 

Late in the summer of 1795, Bishop-elect Pettigrew started to 
Philadelphia to be consecrated. He stopped in Edenton and wrote 
a hasty note to his wife relating that he "got over" the river 
"without rain but that it pursued" him "to the wharf." He 
mentioned the fact that he had forgotten his umbrella but had 
been lent one. Fear of yellow fever forced him to discontinue 
his trip. 89 To his sons at the University of North Carolina he 
explained : 

I set out a fortnight ago to meet the General Convention at Phila- 
delphia agreeably to my appointment. But when I had got well 
on my journey towards Norfolk, where I intended to go on board 
the Packet, the reports of the yellow fever, and the mortality 
which attended it were such, that I concluded it the most prudent 
to return, so that I have declined going at this time, if ever. 90 

Pettigrew wrote to Bishop White explaining why he did not 
attend the convention. He said: 

Had I proceeded, it is probable I should have found the Packet 
stopt, if otherwise, it would have been very dangerous to have 
gone aboard with passengers flying from the Disorder, after 
taking the infection perhaps, and could I have got on board 
of a Vessel bound for either Philadelphia or New York, the 
danger would have been equal, besides being obliged to perform 
Quarrentine after our arrival, which would have defeated my 
intention of being at the Convention. The journey by land would 
not be much short of five hundred miles — besides it is the most 

87 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, June 9, 1795, Pettigrew MSS. 

88 Dr. William White to Charles Pettigrew, July 6, 1795, Pettigrew Papers. 

80 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Pettigrew, August 29, 1795, Pettigrew MSS. 

60 Charles Pettigrew to John and Ebenezer Pettigrew, September 19, 1795, Pettigrew MSS. 



34 The North Carolina Historical Review 

sickly season of the year, so that it is probable I might not arrive 
before the rising of the Convention. From all these considera- 
tions I have concluded to postpone it, for a more favourable 
time. 91 

The fact that the General Convention had been postponed be- 
cause of the epidemic of yellow fever in Philadalphia was un- 
known to the worried bishop-elect for some time. 92 

Pettigrew planned to attend the next General Convention 
scheduled for September, 1798. The convention never assembled, 
however, because of 

the appearance of yellow fever ... & the alarming probability 
of its spreading through this city [Philadelphia] .... The Chair- 
man and some members of the Standing Committee of the church, 
have had a conference with Bishop White on the subject, and 
have considered it their duty to circulate this notice [postponing 
the meeting], to their brethren in each state, to prevent the 
trouble and expense of an unavailing attendence. Measures will 
be taken, either by adjournment, agreeably to the constitution, 
or by a recommendation of the standing committee to the Bishops 
as provided for . . . [illegible] the journals of 1795, to have a 
special convention called about the beginning of June next. . . . 93 

The special convention met but Pettigrew did not attend. One 
reason for non-attendance was his illness, but there might have 
been other important considerations. "Your reasons for not ap- 
plying for Consecration certainly were weighty; and I make 
no doubt but you were right in declining. You certainly were the 
best judge in the matter," 94 wrote Nathaniel Blount to Charles 
Pettigrew early in 1799. The bishop-elect also failed to attend 
the General Conventions of 1801 and 1804. 95 The only plausible 
reason he advanced was the state of his health. On one occasion 
he wrote to Dr. Hailing in New Bern, "I had thought of pub- 
lishing three sermons, on the subject of Baptism: but my health 
has been so poor, that I could not transcribe them, and fit them 
for the public eye." 96 In all his correspondence during these 
years his ill health was constantly emphasized. 97 



91 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, September 5, 1795, Pettigrew Papers. 

92 De Rosset, Church History, 196. 

93 Dr. William White and William Smith to Charles Pettigrew, August 8, 1798, Pettigrew 
Papers. 

94 Transcripts, Pettigrew Papers- Nathaniel Blount to Charles Pettigrew, January 17, 
1799, Pettigrew Papers. 

95 Perry, Church History, I, 259-291. 

98 Charles Pettigrew to Solomon Hailing, February 2, 1794, Pettigrew MSS. 
97 Correspondence, 1798-1807, Pettigrew MSS. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 35 

The efforts of Charles Pettigrew and his fellow workers to 
organize the Diocese of North Carolina and to secure the ordina- 
tion of a bishop failed utterly. The conventions of 1790, 1791, 
1793, and 1794 were unsuccessful for they did not in any way 
revive the church in North Carolina. One of the ministers who 
actively participated in the movement to revive the Episcopal 
Church wailed : 

Nothing that we did then has, that I know of, been of con- 
sequence at all. How little regard has been paid to the intend- 
ed Constitution — nor have we ever been yet (that I know of) 
represented in any of the General Conventions. Oh ! the deplor- 
able situation of the Episcopal church in this State. 98 

Solomon Hailing was the only member of the clergy in North 
Carolina who ever waxed enthusiastic over chances for the suc- 
cessful revival of the church. In fact, the men who should have 
been active in leadership were pessimistic about the attempted 
revival. Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire has pointed out the fact 
that the "deceptive legal status, and the legislative provision 
for the church [before the Revolution] obscured her essentially 
spiritual character, and prevented her people from crystalizing 
in strong and self-reliant congregations capable of sustaining 
themselves. . . ."" This lack of self-reliant congregations was 
another reason for the failure of the North Carolina conventions. 
Only in the Tarborough region, at Edenton, and at New Bern 
were the congregations integrated to any degree. 

Another important factor in the failure of the conventions 
in North Carolina was the lack of doctrinal unity. Pettigrew, 
Hailing, Cutting, and Wilson in general agreed theologically, but 
others differed with them. For example, Pattillo wrote Pettigrew 
in 1788 that George Micklejohn (a Tory during the Revolution) 
and James Craig were respectively "a Deist" and a "Son of 
Thunder." 100 Many of the prominent laymen were deists and un- 
interested in reviving the church. 101 Furthermore, there were 
not sufficient ministers to fill the various churches. And when 
there were ministers, as R. J. Miller pointed out, there was not 



98 Nathaniel Blount to Charles Pettigrew, September 15, 1798, Pettigrew Papers. 

99 De Rosset, Church History, 245. 

ioo Henry Pattillo to Charles Pettigrew, December 13, 1788, Pettigrew MSS. George Mickle- 
john was an Episcopal minister of Granville County. James Craig was rector of Cumberland 
Parish in Virginia and North Carolina. 

101 Henry Pattillo to Dr. Andrew Knox, undated, Pettigrew MSS. 



36 The North Carolina Historical Review 

a sufficient supply of prayer books or other needed materials. 
As a result the people listened to the Baptists and Presbyterians, 
who filled their heads with predestination. 102 

The institution of slavery was also a complicating factor. 
Devereux Jarrett, whose parish extended from Virginia into 
eastern North Carolina, wrote Edward Drumgoole that in his 
parish the slavery issue had been injected as a religious issue 
and that 

even allowing that those who retain Bondsmen are wrong in so 
doing, yet I should think they ought not to be put on a level 
(as they are now) with horsethieves & Hogstealers, Knaves & 
c. . . . I say I think this ought not to be done ; especially as they 
suppose they are warranted in their Practice by the example of 
Abraham, Isaac, and the writings [of the Apostles]. 103 

Just how widespread these schisms were in the North Carolina 
Diocese is unknown, but the fact that they existed in an adjoining 
area indicates that the church was subject to a variety of handi- 
caps. 

The selection of Pettigrew for bishop was another factor con- 
tributing to the failure of the conventions. Undoubtedly the pres- 
ence of a bishop in the state would have done much to facilitate 
reorganization, and Pettigrew' s failure to qualify hampered the 
cause. He was forced to secure his income from planting and to 
divide his attention at a time when his unyielding spirit might 
well have provided the spark for reintegration of his church. 
As Pettigrew himself wrote : 

... it appears to me in the clearest light of Demonstration, that 
our Church requires a head. 

Misunderstand me not I believe Christ to be the great Head 
of his church universal; but for the sake of regularity, good 
order, and respectability, there certainly ought to be one vested 
with authority to preside, as Primus inter pares. However, I 
would not wish the power to ordain, to sensure, to suspend, or 
degrade, to be vested in him alone, but only to be exercised by 
him, with the concurrence of his brethren, the clergy, met in 
convocation. 104 

It is possible that a financially secure leader would have been 
able to weld the diffuse fragments of the church into a whole. 



102 Reuben Ellis to Edward Drumgoole, August 30, 1786, Drumgoole MSS. 

103 Devereux Jarrett to Edward Drumgoole, March 22, 1788, Pettigrew MSS. 

104 Charles Pettigrew to Solomon Hailing, February 2, 1794, Pettigrew Papers. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 37 

Certainly an active leader would have facilitated such reorganiza- 
tion. 

A final factor contributing to the failure of the conventions 
was the difficulty of transportation and communication. This 
factor hampered the association of the clergy and tended to pre- 
vent their formation into a closely knit organization. It some- 
times took a month for communications to go from Edenton to 
New Bern, a distance of about forty miles. 105 Personal travel 
was equally difficult. On one occasion Pettigrew planned to at- 
tend a conference of the Methodists and "sent out for my Horse 
with a desire, if possible, to give my attendance — But he, with 
another, had broke, or been rid out of the pasture, so that they 
were not found for several days, & then seven or eight miles 
off." 106 

Because of the difficulties of communication and transporta- 
tion, Charles Pettigrew was not even acquainted with all the 
members of the clergy in his church. He wrote to Dr. Cutting in 
1791, giving a list of the clergy and concluded "These are all 
the clergy of the Episcopal order that I have heard of in the state. 
Should you know, or hear, of any to the Southward of New Bern, 
I must request of you to acquaint them with this matter." 107 
In the light of the difficulties of travel, the small number of per- 
sons attending the conventions is easy to understand. Pastors 
forced to oversee plantations could rarely afford to lose two or 
more weeks during the growing season. This condition con- 
tributed to the failure of the North Carolina conventions. 

As bishop-elect, Charles Pettigrew desired to give impetus to 
the movement for reorganization: 

I must make use of the small influence I have, under my pres- 
ent appointment of Bishop-elect, to have Vestries chosen in the 
different counties where they have not been chosen, & to have 
new elections where that regulation has taken place & their year 
is expired. 

This is agreeable to an article of our constitution. There are 
some however, who do not profess themselves members of our 
church, that can either elect or be elected to serve as vestrymen. 



105 The Reverend Wilson Blount received the letter written on the day of the death of 
his twin sister, who was the Reverend Charles Pettigrew's first wife, on April 25, 1786. She 
died March 16, 1786. 

106 Charles Pettigrew to Edward Drumgoole, September 22, 1784, Pettigrew MSS, 

107 Charles Pettigrew to Leonidas Cutting, 1791 (copy), Pettigrew MSS. 



38 The North Carolina Historical Review 

I most sincerely wish that some Episcopal clergyman of emi- 
nence, would come into our state. I would very cheerfully resign 
my appointment in his favor. We are but few, & the vacancies 
very numerous. 108 

Pettigrew undoubtedly wrote many letters in this connection 
to prominent laymen and to the ministers of his church, but the 
only correspondence extant is that with Charles Moore of Mt. 
Tirzah, Person County. The bishop-elect wrote to Moore giving 
an account of the state convention. In closing he said : 

Permit me now Sir, to request you in behalf of our declining 
church, to have a vestry chosen in your country, of such as pro- 
fess themselves churchmen .... you will also I hope recommend 
it to those of the next counties, as opportunity may serve. By 
this means you will fall into an organized state ; also place lay- 
readers in your chapels, whereby you will be known from those 
of different persuasions by Solemnly joining together on Sun- 
days, in the worship of Almighty God, than which nothing can 
render Society more truly respectful. 109 

Some months later Moore replied that an organization of the 
vestry had been effected. Discussing the possibilities of the suc- 
cess of the organization, Moore said : 

As I was from my childhood, brought up in the Church of Eng- 
land . . . the flourishing of the . . . Episcopal Church is a circum- 
stance very near my heart, but I have to lament that the few 
of us that are in this & the neighboring counties are almost 
as sheep without a shepard, and many who formerly were of that 
Church from a motive of piety been drawn aside to other De- 
nominations, not having an Opportunity of worshipping God 
in the way that they had been brought up. Should we be so 
happy as to have a worthy, Pious Pastor of the Church fixed 
among us, I make no doubt but many would return, to the Bosom 
of our mother, and the rising generation would be nourished 
under her Wings. 110 

In 1795 the bishop-elect and Robert Johnston Miller, an Epis- 
copal minister, ordained in the Lutheran Church, 111 toyed with 
the idea of a coalition of the Lutheran and Episcopal churches 
in North Carolina. 112 Pettigrew mentioned this possibility to 



108 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, September 5, 1795, Drumgoole MSS. 

109 Charles Pettigrew to Charles Moore, November 2, 1795, Pettigrew MSS. 

110 Charles Moore to Charles Pettigrew, April 21, 1796, Pettigrew Papers. 

111 De Rosset, Church History, 381-385. 

112 Charles Pettigrew to Dr. William White, May 6, 1795; Robert J. Miller to Charles 
Pettigrew, May 6, 1795 (copy), Pettigrew MSS. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 39 

Bishop White, but receiving no advice he failed to push the mat- 
ter. Thus "Mr. Miller was left powerless to do anything for the 
effectual upbuilding of the church." 113 

In the towns many obstacles confronted Pettigrew. Regarding 
these barriers to re-vitalizing the New Bern parish, Dr. Hailing 
wrote : 

Upon the receipt of your letter, I called the vestry together, and 
consulted them upon the propriety of acting as you had directed, 
and urged the extreme necessity of adopting the measures you 
had proposed for the advancement of our church. They objected 
to the time, and could not be induced to proceed to the election 
of a Vestry in the manner you had recommended. Their reasons 
against the former were the impropriety of choosing persons for 
a religious purpose, at the time of electing members of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, as many are either too much interested in this 
issue, or intoxicated with liquor, and the opposition that might 
follow, in consequence of other Sects being there Present. 114 

Because of these obstacles few benefits can be traced to Charles 
Pettigrew's efforts to rehabilitate the church. "The names of a 
few of the lay-readers," appointed as a result of the bishop- 
elect's efforts to perfect the Episcopal church organization in 
North Carolina, "have lingered" with the church antiquarians, 
but little other evidence of his work is extant. 

The efforts of the bishop-elect to revive his church failed for 
the same reasons that the conventions failed. "The Church was 
powerless because Clergy and laity thought they were power- 
less." 115 Pettigrew himself had little confidence in the outcome 
of the efforts for a revival of the church. 116 Perhaps it was this 
feeling of futility that enabled the bishop-elect to retire from 
active service with so little regret. His application for consecra- 
tion by the General Convention was not renewed after 1795, 
but he remained the recognized head of the church until 1799. 
It was generally understood that he desired to resign. "Perhaps 
it would have been better if you had endeavoured to get a con- 
vention, and had made a formal resignation: but I don't know 
whether it would have been best or not ; or whether a convention 



118 De Rosset, Church History, 387. 

114 Solomon Hailing to Charles Pettigrew, April 19, 1796 (Ann B. Shepard Pettigrew 
copy, 1864), Pettigrew MSS. 

135 De Rosset, Church History, 208. 

U8 Charles Pettigrew to Solomon Hailing, February 2, 1794 (copy), Pettigrew MSS. 



40 The North Carolina Historical Review 

could have been gotten," 117 wrote one of his fellow ministers in 
1799. Pettigrew ceased to consider himself head of the church 
after that date and, while he still retained his widespread con- 
nections, he yielded more and more to his local interests. 

In 1797 Charles Pettigrew moved to his Belgrade plantation 
in Tyrrell County. He remained there until his death. It was for 
his services in that region that the name "Old Parson" was given 
him. He was in constant demand to officiate at christenings, wed- 
dings, and funerals. Occasionally he received money for his serv- 
ices but more frequently he did not. 118 He preached on Sundays 
in a schoolhouse on the farm of Josiah Phelps. 119 Writing his 
sister in 1800 with reference to his local religious activities, he 
said: "I have preached this 6 years past 120 without gratuity or 
reward, nor shall I ever ask anything. I wish I could do some 
good; but I feel mankind have greatly degenerated in the last 
twenty years." 121 The schoolhouse used as a meeting place proved 
unsatisfactory because of its smallness and its distance from the 
homes of the members of the congregation. 122 In 1803 the "Old 
Parson" donated land for a chapel on his plantation and furn- 
ished most of the necessary materials. He wrote Reverend Nath- 
aniel Blount as follows : 

I am building a Chapel on my own land close by me, and am in 
expectation of having it so forward in about 6 months that we 
can convene in it with conveniency to ourselves. 

We have gote one nearly finished about 12 miles above, where 
I attend two Sundays in the month, unless prevented by sick- 
ness or bad weather. 123 

The congregation contributed some work 124 and in a few months 
the chapel was completed. The following year he wrote Blount: 

Since I have got our new Chapels in such a State as to meet com- 
fortably in them, I feel myself quite happy in the exercise of my 



117 Transcripts, Reverend Nathaniel Blount to Charles Pettigrew, January 17, 1799, Petti- 
grew MSS. 

118 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Verner, May 26, 1800, Pettigrew MSS. "Transcripts," 
passim; Charles Pettigrew to Nathaniel Blount, August 23, 1793; February 22, 1804, Pettigrew 
MSS. 

119 De Rosset, Church History, 216. 

120 while minister at Edenton it was his custom to preach occasionally in different parts 
of Tyrrell County. 

121 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Verner, May 26, 1800, Pettigrew MSS. 

122 De Rosset, Church History, 216. 

128 Transcripts, Charles Pettigrew to Nathaniel Blount, February 22, (1804?), Pettigrew 
MSS. 

124 De Rosset, Church History, 216. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 41 

ministerial functions, from a variety of favorable circumstances, 
One of which is the people attend much better. Indeed my own 
chapel is generally crowded ; while they hear with great serious- 
ness & attention — and now I begin to hope, that through the con- 
current blessing of God, my feeble Labours may be useful among 
the people. I am in hopes they now begin to think me in earnest, 
after having preached to them about seven years, & built them 
a Decent & commodious Chapel at my own expense, except a few 
days work, besides attending at their funerals to the neglect of 
my own business, & taking nothing from them for any service 
I render them, in the united character of their clergyman & 
physicial. . . am happy in the thought, that they cannot attribute 
my faithfulness ... to an expectation of being paid for it ... . 
I thank God, I can live without it & the people are poor .... 
Before the dissolution of the establishment, I absolutely forbid 
anything to be collected from the Quakers for me, as I would 
not receive it. Neither have I taken anything for either visiting 
the sick, or baptising during the course of my ministry. 125 

Pettigrew continued to serve as spiritual guardian of his 
neighbors until his death. The ravages of a chest condition, 
possibly tuberculosis, limited his activities and he seldom left 
Belgrade Plantation. 126 

Like other ministers of his generation Charles Pettigrew was 
greatly under the influence of Calvinistic theological doctrines. 127 
Several of his sermons cover the wickedness and depravity of 
mankind, the ugliness of worldly life, and the payment to be made 
for earthly sins at the hands of a pitiless diety. 128 Throughout 
his career, Pettigrew was a stickler for infant baptism, yet he 
strenuously objected to the doctrine of infant damnation. 129 Some 
of his sermons were probably well received since he noted that 
they were repeatedly used and occasionally at the same church. 130 
For example, "A Sermon on the Love of God" was preached at 
"the Court House," May 6, 1798 ; at Phelps Chapel, August 15, 
1802; at Skinners Chapel, July 1, 1804; and at White Chapel, 
July 22, 1804. 131 This sermon is comparatively short and well 
written, being documented both with quotations from the Scrip- 
tures and from current religious authorities. One sermon with 
the title missing was preached first at Edenton, July 19, 1778, 



125 Charles Pettigrew to Nathaniel Blount, February 22, 1804, Pettigrew Papers. 
128 Nathaniel Blount to Charles Pettigrew, May 4, 1802, Pettigrew MSS. 

127 Sermons, passim, Pettigrew MSS. 

128 Sermons, passim, Pettigrew MSS. 

129 Correspondence and Sermons, 1775-1807, passim, Pettigrew MSS. 
180 Sermons, passim, Pettigrew MSS. 

^"Sermon on the Love of God," Pettigrew MSS. 



42 The North Carolina Historical Review 

and last at Phelps Chapel, July 15, 1798. During this span of 
twenty years Pettigrew noted that he used it at eleven different 
chapels. 132 Possibly these notations of the places where the 
sermons were used served to prevent a common ministerial fail- 
ing — that of using the same sermon on the same congregation too 
often. 

These sermons, and others, reveal that Charles Pettigrew was 
well acquainted with theological authorities as well as the Greek 
and Latin testaments. One writer, after studying the sermons, 
arrived at the conclusion that he was a good Latin scholar and 
that his favorite author was Virgil. 133 They are cited as "a 
sermon on — with a Hymn on the Subject by the author." 134 The 
sermons were constantly revised, some passages were struck out, 
and insertions were made. Pettigrew wrote some of his sermons 
and then did not deliver them. An interesting feature of all the 
sermons is the use of hymns, placed before and after the sermon. 
In most cases there can be no doubt that he wrote these hymns 
since his correspondence reveals that he dabbled with poetry, 
but it is probable that they were modeled on then current hymns. 
These hymns were usually "lined out" to congregations, which 
procedure served to supply the deficiency of hymn books. 135 On 
November 4, 1804, Pettigrew preached "a Sermon on the Declara- 
tion of Christ in Favor of Little Children with a Hymn on the 
subject by the Author." The hymn, typical of many he wrote, is 
as follows : 

When Infants die, ye Parents why 
Should Tears of Sorrow flow. 
Seeing they rise to endless joys 
From troubles here below. 

5j» SJ» *j» iji *J* 

Teach us God ! to kiss the Rod 
And own thy hand divine. 
In every blow though full of wo 
Nor let us once repine. 136 



132 Sermon (no title), Pettigrew MSS. 

133 "MSS., of James Johnston Pettigrew," Pettigrew MSS., also printed in De Rosset, 
Church History, 218-223. 

134 Sermons, passim, Pettigrew MSS. 

135 Charles Moore to Charles Pettigrew, April 21, 1796, Pettigrew MSS.; Johnson, Ante- 
Bellum North Carolina, 436-438. 

139 "Sermon on the Declaration of Christ in Favor of Little Children," 1804, Pettigrew MSS. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Elect 43 

This hymn had the virtue of covering a subject close to the aud- 
ience. 137 The chief virtues of his sermons and hymns was their 
simplicity, conciseness, and personal appeal. 

Tradition relates that Charles Pettigrew was "a fluent and 
eloquent speaker," with a voice "soft and pleasant to the ear." 138 
He addressed himself directly to his audience and preferred to 
speak simply "in a kind of unsteadied address" in preference to 
an oratorical appeal to the emotions. 139 He frequently condemned 
the practice, followed by ministers of all persuasions and es- 
pecially the Baptists and Methodists, of appealing to the emo- 
tions. 140 He said: 

This they did by what I call the grievance of preaching mere 
bodily exercise which profiteth little. They worked the people 
up in such a flame, that when they got time to cool down, they 
have grown imperturably hard & obdurate and many of them 
seem to indicate strongly that their last State is worse than the 
first ... in the consequence, they are more deceitful, more lying, & 
hypocritical than ever. They were warned but not instructed. 
Their religion was placed in their passions, & these are now 
cooled & their religion is fled. The hobby horse has been riden 
to death and alas! what is worse their minds have been indus- 
triously prejudiced against rational & instructive preaching. 141 

Writing to his brother Ebenezer in the district of Ninety-Six, 
in South Carolina, he said : "I am aff raid too many of them place 
Religion in a certain movement of the passions, & some religious 
affectations for a time . . . when indeed true religion consists 
in an humble walk with God, & constant endeavor after high- 
er degrees of personal holiness." 142 In the latter statement the 
ministerial philosophy of Charles Pettigrew is expressed. Yet 
in one of his more reflective moments he was forced to admit, 
"Perhaps if I had more life in religion it would diffuse it- 
self, But alas! I find myself too cold, to be an instrument of 
diffusing much vital warmth to others." 143 

The direct address method used by Charles Pettigrew com- 
manded the respect of the intelligent people of his acquaintance. 
Consequently he was called upon to deliver eulogies on important 



187 Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina, 739, passim. 

138 De Rosset, Church History, 237. 

139 Charles Pettigrew to Henry Pattillo, January 9, 1789, Pettigrew MSS. 

140 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Verner, May 26, 1800, Pettigrew MSS. 

141 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Verner, May 26, 1799, Pettigrew MSS. 

142 Charles Pettigrew to Ebenezer Pettigrew, May 25, 1789, Pettigrew MSS. 
148 Charles Pettigrew to Henry Pattillo, January 9, 1789, Pettigrew MSS. 



44 The North Carolina Historical Review 

people, among them George Washington. 144 His eulogy on Wash- 
ington was delivered in the grandlioquent style which the occasion 
demanded. 145 One of his most famous eulogies was that delivered 
at the funeral of United States Supreme Court Justice James 
Iredell, in October, 1799. 146 In delivering Iredell's funeral oration, 
Pettigrew lost the coldness which accompanied his more staid 
religious utterances and showered the deceased with all the 
flowery adjectives at his command. 147 The eulogies of Washing- 
ton and Iredell are the only ones extant of the many which his 
correspondence indicates he delivered. 

The only recorded occasion where the funeral oration failed 
to please the audience was that delivered at the burial of Benja- 
min Smith. "One of the People/' a friend of Smith, wrote an 
address in which he criticized the manner in which the funeral 
was conducted. 148 This aroused the ire of the usually calm minis- 
ter who noted on the address, "A Stupid Blockhead but as he 
says 'One of the People!' " Again, "Done I suspect by Zaphaniah 
Davies for Charles Spruill. Of this there is no doubt for it is 
evident by his scholarship." 149 

The principal religious influence of Pettigrew was local. 
While he was well known to the leading members of his church, 
both clergy and laity, throughout the state his efforts outside 
his Tyrrell and St. Paul's parishes consistently failed. It was 
around the Edenton region principally that the strenuous ef- 
forts he put forth brought a measure of success. While his 
brother ministers struggled to prevent the inroads of other sects 
upon their congregations, Pettigrew said, "I can only say, I am 
not troubled with sectaries. The Anabaptists have dwindled to 
nothing, & I don't know that there has ever been a Methodist 
Resident in Chowan or Perquimans." 150 That this was more than 
a figurative remark is doubtful, but there can be no doubt that 
the effort of Charles Pettigrew to maintain his church in the 
Edenton region was eminently successful. 

The approach of what he was positive — and correctly so — 
was his death found the "Old Parson," as he was called, still in 



114 Eulogy on the Death of General Washington, no date, Pettigrew MSS. 
145 Eulogy on the Death of General Washington, no date, Pettigrew MSS. 
146 McRee, Iredell, II, 585. 
" 7 McRee, Iredell, II, 585-588. 

148 "An address on the Occasion of the Burial of Benjamin Smith," Pettigrew MSS. 

149 "An address on the Occasion of the Burial of Benjamin Smith," Pettigrew MSS. 

150 Charles Pettigrew to Henry Pattillo, January 9, 1789, Pettigrew MSS. 



Charles Pettigrew, First Bishop-Slect 45 

harness warring against the Baptists and their cohorts. In 1803 
two Baptist ministers, Lemuel Burkitt and Jessie Read, pub- 
lished A Concise History of The Kehukee Baptist Association. 151 
Pettigrew was outraged by many of their claims and religious 
doctrines. He addressed a series of letters to the editor of the 
Edenton Gazette stating as a basis for his remarks that since 
newspapers should be used for other purposes than political in- 
formation and amusement, he proposed to address a series of 
letters "in the religious style to our Brethren of the Baptist 
Persuasion," 152 to be signed "Philanthropus." In these letters 
he denounced the strict Calvinism of the Baptists as well as 
their Arminianism, and their views on a variety of subjects 
from immersion as the Sine Qua non of membership to infant 
baptism and irreligion. James Wells of Edenton printed twelve 
of these in book form in 1807. 153 Pettigrew noted in the preface 
to the published volume that these letters had been written while 
he was confined to his room in his "last illness" and that he only 
desired that the people should hear all sides of the question and 
know the truth. Whether or not these letters served any purpose 
must remain a question unanswered. The fact that Pettigrew 
was still challenging other sects indicates, however, that he re- 
tained his religious views and mental drive unchanged until his 
death. 

The familiar sobriquet, "Old Parson," is indicative of a great 
many unrecorded deeds. In a day when "the clergy were rarely 
popular and always subjected to harsh criticism . . . the manner 
which he discharged the very onerous duties of his calling, in 
a sickly country, was exemplary." 154 He was constantly called 
on to perform his duties as a minister and he usually responded. 
Typical of such demands is the following: "It is with extreme 
regret that I communicate to you the death of Mr. Jacob Blount 
... it is proposed to bury him tomorrow, when it is earnestly 






151 Lemuel Burkitt and Jessie Read, A Concise History of the Kehukee Baptist Association 
(Halifax, N. C: A. Hodge, 1803). 

153 Letters, Pettigrew Papers. 

153 "Philanthropus" (Charles Pettigrew), A Series of Letters in Which An Attentive 
persual of Mr. Edtvard's Candid reasons for renouncing the Principles of Antepaedo- 
baptism is seriously recommended and the right of infants to membership in the Church 
of God is also pleaded. The Letters Being first published by the author in the Edenton 
Gazette. The first five were addressed to Mess. Burkitt, Read and other ministers of the 
Baptist Kehukee Association. The subsequent five were addressed To The People as being 
the most worthy. A reply to the first letter by Mr. Burkitt and to the third by a Mr. 
Poindexter, are annexed, as they have been answered (Edenton: James Willis, 1807). 

1M McRee, Iredell, II, 193. 



,40 .The -North Carolina Historical Review 

.requested . . . that you would attend, if with convenience to your- 
self you can possible — a Canoe and hands wait on you at mr. 
Chessons." 155 Other ministers complained that "Preaching houses 
are but tolerable" 156 but Charles Pettigrew was interested in the 
spiritual welfare of his people and made few complaints. 

Charles Pettigrew, a frail man of average height, 157 riding 
over the muddy trails and crossing the sound in a skiff in all 
kinds of weather to visit the sick 158 or attend to the religious 
needs of some group, was a familiar picture to the people of the 
Edenton region. 159 Illustrations of his generosity are legion. 160 
He was loved and respected by most of the people who knew him 
and he had few enemies. 161 He died April 8, 1807, at the age of 
sixty-three at Belgrade Plantation in Tyrrell County leaving a 
rich spiritual legacy to those whom he had served well. 



155 Alex W. Miller to Charles Pettigrew, January 22, 1801, Pettigrew MSS. 

156 (W. C. Blades ?) to Edward Drumgoole, September 26, 1788, Drumgoole MSS. 

157 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Verner, May 26, 1800, Pettigrew MSS. 

158 Charles Pettigrew to Mrs. Mary Pettigrew, March 15, 1795, Pettigrew MSS. 

159 Correspondence, passim, 1777-1807, Pettigrew MSS. 
16° De Rosset, Church History, 217. 

161 Correspondence, passim, Pettigrew MSS. 



BAPTIST ACADEMIES IN NORTH CAROLINA 
By George Washington Paschal 

Those who have written on North Carolina academies have 
said very little about Baptist academies. With the exception of 
Wake Forest — Institute and College — no Baptist school of any 
kind is mentioned in Coon's great work, North Carolina Acad- 
emies, 1790-1840. Of all the hundreds and thousands of teachers 
in the schools of the state he names only one who, as we know 
from other sources, was a Baptist. And Coon had the best of 
reasons for saying nothing of Baptist academies. Until after 
1840 there was not a Baptist academy in the state. For Baptist 
academies Baptist teachers are necessary, and of these there 
were very few until Wake Forest College began to supply them 
in its first graduating class in 1839. 

In the next two decades, however, the Baptists in their church- 
es, associations, and the Baptist State Convention manifested 
much interest and activity in providing schools. It is of these 
Baptist academies established in the years 1840-1860 that I am 
undertaking to give some account in the first section of my 
paper, while in the second section I tell something of the further 
development of the denomination's interest in secondary educa- 
tion which resulted in a state-wide system of Baptist academies 
in the early years of this century. 

Beginning in January, 1845, with the opening of Milton Female 
Institute, 1 in the next fourteen years the Baptists founded and 
were maintaining a dozen or more academies, one or more in 
every section of North Carolina. Some of these academies were 
of much excellence, equal to any to be found in the state. Al- 
though with one exception all have been superseded by other 
schools, their stimulating educational and cultural influence has 
continued to this day. In my view this was the most important 
development in the field of secondary education in our state dur- 
ing the nineteenth century. 

Probably this statement will seem surprising, if not incredible, 
to many well versed in our educational history. The able authors 



1 Minutes of Beulah Baptist Association, 1845. 

[47] 



48 The North Carolina Historical Review 

who have written at length on the academies of this period do 
not give the name of a single North Carolina Baptist academy 
established before the Civil War, and seem to have been unaware 
of the existence of any. One looks in vain for the least reference 
to them in Dr. Charles Lee Raper's The Church and Private 
Schools of North Carolina, published in 1898. While Dr. Raper 
traces in much detail the development of interest in academies 
among other religious groups of the state, by his silence he leaves 
his readers to infer that the Baptists had no such educational 
interest at all. The researcher finds an equal lack of reference 
to a Baptist academy in Dr. Kemp P. Battle's "Sketches of Some 
Old and Extinct Schools of the Counties of North Carolina," a 
work of 150 pages prepared on the request of Charles H. Mebane, 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and published in his 
Biennial Report for 1896-98. Nor is there any reference to Bap- 
tist academies in Dr. Charles Lee Smith's History of Education 
in North Carolina, published in 1888. 

Abundant information about these Baptist schools is readily 
accessible, however, in the Biblical Recorder of those years, in 
the minutes of Baptist churches and associations, and in the 
Annuals of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. 
Using these materials, all in the library of Wake Forest Col- 
lege, I wrote as well as I was able the chapter on "Associational 
Academies," an essential chapter, for my History of Wake Forest 
College. Having been honored with a request to write on Baptist 
academies as part of a program of papers on the history of all 
the academies of the state, I find myself under the necessity of re- 
peating, though with considerable abridgment, much that I have 
already written and published. But I shall treat the subject under 
certain new aspects which I hope will make for a better under- 
standing of it. 

It was in connection with Wake Forest College that the Bap- 
tists of North Carolina first became conscious of their sore need 
of academies of their own. In the early 1840's they realized that 
the College needed more students and better prepared students. 
They were not the first to feel this need. It had long been felt 
at the University of North Carolina. As early as 1832 Professor 
William Hooper of the University faculty was bitterly complain- 



Baptist Academies in North Carolina 49 

ing of lack of preparation of its matriculates. 2 Such was the ex- 
tent of this deficiency that until the eve of the Civil War the 
University as well as the colleges of the state found it necessary 
to provide instruction for students not prepared for admission 
to their freshman classes. 3 

Wake Forest College not only suffered in early years from this 
common evil of lack of preparation of its students, but for lack 
of Baptist academies it almost lacked students entirely, the num- 
ber having fallen from 141 in 1836 to less than 100 in every suc- 
ceeding year until 1846-1847. 4 Most of the masters of the North 
Carolina schools of this period, being graduates of the University 
and of other denominations, naturally directed their students, 
even sons of Baptists, to other institutions than Wake Forest 
College. The one hope of correcting this condition, so runious to 
the College, was in Baptist academies. 

Realizing this, Rev. Elias Dodson said in the Biblical Recorder 
of July 19, 1845 : "To nourish Wake Forest College there should 
be three or four academies in different parts of the State, one 
in Bertie, one in Burke, and a third in Caswell." 

It was of much importance for the College and the Baptists 
of the state that Dodson at this time started this movement. 
Dodson, let me say, was a member of a well-to-do and influential 
Virginia family and a graduate of Richmond College. In 1844 
he had come to North Carolina as missionary of the Beulah 
Association, located in one of the wealthiest and most progressive 
sections of the state, beginning with the county of Caswell and 
extending west to Mount Airy. In it lived families of prominence 
and culture, not a few of them Baptists, of such names as Yancey, 
Graves, Kerr, Palmer, Lea, Settle, Henderson, Russell, and Po- 
teat. 

It was these forward-looking people who were the first to 
respond to Dodson's proposal to establish Baptist academies, and 



2 "Imperfections of our Primary Schools, and the Best Method of Correcting- them: De- 
livered before the North Carolina Institute of Education at Chapel Hill, June 20, 1832, by- 
William Hooper, Professor of Ancient Languages in the University," in C. L. Coon, North 
Carolina Schools and Academies, 729 ff. Reprinted from the Raleigh Register, May 28 and 
June 4, 1888. 

8 The annual catalogues of Wake Forest College show that first in July, 1860, all prepara- 
tory work was discontinued, and that it was resumed again on the re-opening of the College 
in January, 1866. The statements in the catalogues of the University of North Carolina 
are not so definite, but it is clear from Dr. K. P. Battle's History of the University of 
North Carolina that as late as 1856 there was much complaint that many of the students 
came with insufficient preparation, and that members of the faculty gave much of their 
time to instructing them in arithmetic and other grammar school subjects. Battle, History 
of the University of North Carolina, I, 665. 

4 Paschal, History of Wake Forest College, I, 180 ff. 



50 The North Carolina Historical Review 

this fact doubtless had much influence in determining the char- 
acter of the schools which the Baptists of the state established 
in the next fifteen years. 

They were not ignorant, and Dodson was not ignorant, of 
the fact that the woods and villages and towns of North Carolina 
were already full of academies of a certain kind and that new 
ones were springing up every year. The General Assembly in- 
corporated, or reincorporated, four in 1840-1841, ten in 1842- 
1843, eleven in 1844-1845, and sixteen in 1846-1847. 5 For the 
schools that were content to operate without charters no fig- 
ures are available, but the indications are that they were far more 
numerous than the chartered academies. Some of these schools, 
both chartered and unchartered, were excellent and rendered a 
notable service to the cause of education in this state. But many 
of them were clearly inadequate as educational institutions, even 
when judged by the standards then prevailing. They had no 
organized support to provide a proper school plant and give 
promise of permanency. Usually they were under the charge of 
a single master, possibly an aged pedagogue worn out by years of 
teaching and weakened in a few instances by overindulgence in 
strong drink. On the other hand the master may have been 
a young man who had had a year or two in college and was try- 
ing to eke out a living as a schoolteacher until something better 
should be offered. 

Evidently it was not schools of this ephemeral character that 
Dodson was advising the Baptists of the state to establish. As 
events proved, he had in mind academies owned and controlled 
by Baptist churches or associations and operated by a board 
of responsible trustees in accord with the terms of their charters. 
The appointed trustees were to be instructed to locate their school 
in a moral and cultured community, provide for it a school plant 
with spacious grounds and buildings, constructed of good ma- 
terials and after the most approved academic architecture of the 
time. All necessary furnishings were to be procured and the 
surroundings were to be maintained in a way to give the school 
an "academic look." If both sexes were to be provided for, the 
building for the females (to use the convenient terminology of 
the day) was to be built at a safe distance from that for the 



B Laws of North Carolina for years indicated. 



Baptist Academies in North Carolina 51 

males. Near the academy and usually as a part of the grounds 
were lots to be sold to those who might desire to have homes near 
the school while their children were attending the academy. It 
was the further duty of the trustees to see that proper board 
and lodging were available for the students, sometimes in dormi- 
tories and sometimes in private families. It was the part further 
of the trustees to select the officers and teachers, to fix the 
charges for tuition, and to approve the list of studies, which, 
it was always emphasized, were to include nothing of a sectarian 
religious nature. The terms on which teachers were employed and 
the amount of general running expenses of the school varied, 
but usually the associations and the trustees thought they had 
done all required of them when they had provided the physical 
plant, although they regarded it as their obligation to maintain 
their patronage by advertisements in the Biblical Recorder and 
other papers, by announcements at meetings of associations, and 
by extended notices in the published minutes of these associations 
and in the annuals of the Baptist State Convention. 

In the movement for the establishment of Baptist academies, 
which had already begun as early as 1844, the Baptists of the 
Beulah Association took the lead. 6 In four or five years in this 
one association the following schools had begun operations : 

1. The Milton Baptist Female Institute, under the joint control 
of four Baptist Associations, the Beulah and the Flat River in 
North Carolina, and the Roanoke and the Dan River in Virginia, 
chartered December 24, 1844, opened January, 1845; charter 
amended January 29, 1849, to permit the same trustees to operate 
the Beulah Male Academy. 

2. The Academy of the Trinity Baptist Church, eleven miles 
west of Yanceyville, on the Greensboro road, November, 1845, to 
which was added a female academy a year later. 

3. The Male and Female Institute at Rockford, on the Yadkin 
River. Opened in October, 1849. 



6 Minutes of the Beulah Baptist Association, year by year, 1845-1860. A somewhat detailed 
account of Baptist academies established in the Beulah and the other Baptist associations of 
North Carolina in the years before the Civil War is given in the chapter on "Associational 
Academies" in the History of Wake Forest College, I, 312-341. This account is amply, though 
not exhaustively, documented, the sources of information being (1) The published minutes 
of the Baptist associations of North Carolina; (2) Annuals of the Baptist State Convention of 
North Carolina; (3) Annuals of the Western Baptist Convention of North Carolina; (4) 
G. W. Purefoy, History of the Sandy Creek Baptist Association; (5) J. A. Delke, History 
of the Chowan Baptist Association of North Carolina; (6) The Biblical Recorder, 1835-1949, 
including reports of meetings of associations and conventions, news notes, and advertisements 
of schools. 



52 The North Carolina Historical Review 

In other sections of the state Baptist interest in establishing 
academies was somewhat later in maturing, but in the early 
1850's movements for establishing academies had started in a 
dozen Baptist associations of the state with the result that the 
following-named were opened for students at the dates given. 

1. The Raleigh Association Academy, at Holly Springs, Wake 
County, 1853. 

2. Chowan Association, Reynoldson Academy, Gates County, 
1855. 

3. The United Baptist Institute, Taylorsville, January 8, 1856. 

4. Sandy Creek Association, Mount Vernon Male and Female 
Seminary, Mount Vernon Springs, Chatham County, January, 
1856. 

5. Union (now Eastern) Association, Warsaw Academy, War- 
saw, Duplin County, September 20, 1856. 

6. French Broad Academy — later Mars Hill College — Mars 
Hill, Madison County, 1856-57. 

7. Flat River Association, Bethel Hill Academy, Bethel Hill, 
Person County, 1857. 

8. The Beulah Baptist Male Institute. Formed by moving the 
Milton Baptist Male Academy to the more central town of Madi- 
son, and merging with it a Baptist school there, July, 1857. 

9. The Catawba River Baptist Academy, near Morganton, 
1859. 

For an indication of the physical equipment of one of the better 
of these academies, we have the following for the Chowan 
Reynoldson Seminary, written by its first president, Rev. James 
A. Delke, a graduate of the University of North Carolina : 

A large, commodious, and handsome building was erected, 
nicely finished, and furnished with more than the usual academic 
outfit. A small but choice selection of Chemical and Philosophical 
Apparatus was secured at a cost of $600. A large, convenient, 
and comfortable hotel was built and suitably furnished for the 
accommodation of teachers and pupils. 

A store was also opened, and a postoffice established in the 
interest of the school. Mr. J. D. Goodman, near by, also made 
extensive arrangements for the accommodation of boarders. 
A spring of good mineral water was discovered but a short dis- 
tance from the premises, and properly fitted for use, soon be- 
coming a popular resort for the surrounding people. 



Baptist Academies in North Carolina 53 

The location, in many respects, was a fortunate one combining 
healthfullness, good water, a community of citizens of moral and 
industrious habits, hospitable and generous; a Baptist church 
of which most of the adjacent residents were members; a skilled 
and successful physician within a mile ; and the absence of temp- 
tations to idleness and vice incident to schools in towns and 
cities. 7 

These academies did not have identical equipment and build- 
ings. Some excelled in one way, others in other ways. The build- 
ing of the United Baptist Institute at Taylorsville was one of the 
most imposing of all, for it was a commodious brick structure 
with chapel and recitation rooms with a fair mountain prospect. 
A further distinction was that in the town there were three 
churches, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist. The school at 
Mars Hill excelled with a boarding house which cost $3,600. 

Probably the best equipped of all these schools was the Mount 
Vernon Springs Academy in Chatham County. And here, let 
me confess, I am speaking under all the hazards that assail one 
when he tells of his first high school nearly seventy years after- 
wards. The village in which it was located had long been known 
as a watering place and it had a spacious hotel, which during 
the school year might provide board and lodgings for teachers 
and students. Nearby were several nice residences, one of them 
the "Washington Place," known also as Mt. Vernon. This house 
was built by a kinsman of the first President, who had been at- 
tracted from his Virginia home by the reputed medicinal quali- 
ties of the waters of the spring, and it was in his honor that the 
Springs were named. His tomb is in the Napton graveyard two 
miles to the west. 8 

Having fixed on this place as the location of their school, the 
trustees, all substantial men, raised $5,000 and bought the Spring 
and its property. They then formed a fifteen thousand-dollar 
stock company, and bought several hundred acres of land ad- 
jecent to that already purchased. At the top of a beautiful slope, 
200 yards north of the Spring, they built the male academy, a 
stately structure, large enough to accommodate 100 students. 



7 James A. Delke, History of the Chowan Baptist Association of North Carolina, 60 ff. 

8 The account of the Mount Vernon Springs Academy is drawn not only from documen- 
tary sources but also from the personal knowledge of the author. His father was one of the 
first trustees of the school, and he himself was born and reared in the neighborhood; his 
older brothers and a sister were at different periods students at the school; and he knew 
the traditions and history of the village. 



54 The North Carolina Historical Review 

On another slope 300 yards to the east of the Spring and sep- 
arated from the male academy not only by distance but also by 
a stream and a thickly wooded ravine which obscured all vision, 
they erected the buildings of the Female Academy, and equipped 
the rooms with pianos, and palettes and paints and brushes, with 
which the students produced wonderful water-color pictures, 
many of which used to hang in the parlors of well-to-do planters 
of the section. And that proper provision was made for the 
literary instruction of the females is shown by the fact that on 
the mantles of the parlors mentioned were to be found the com- 
mencement essays of the young ladies, written on fine paper, in 
a cramped feminine hand, in faultless English, and inculcating 
moral virtues, and on such subjects as "Be Kind." 

Each of the male academies had a faculty well equipped to pre- 
pare students for the classes of the colleges and the University 
of North Carolina. The principal was a Baptist and in most in- 
stances a Baptist minister ; his one or two assistants were usual- 
ly, but not invariably, Baptists. Normally the teachers were 
graduates of Baptist colleges but at least three, Delke, Faison, 
and Hooper, all principals, were alumni of the University of 
North Carolina. Delke with his faculty of three at the Chowan 
Reynoldson Seminary aspired to make the institution a college, 
but was disappointed by unsympathetic trustees and was forced 
to turn it over to those who were content that it should remain 
an academy. 

When the Warsaw Academy began operations on September 
20, 1856, its principal was Solomon J. Faison, a graduate of the 
University of North Carolina in the class of 1846. His assistant 
was Robert H. Drysdale, described as "Fellow of the Glasgow 
Chemical Society, and late Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 
the Andersonian University." He was secured at considerable 
expense to teach agricultural chemistry, of the need and value of 
which it was said the trustees were well aware. In a short time 
it was announced that the laboratory was "replete with all neces- 
sary apparatus." Those competent to judge praised highly the 
work of Drysdale. No other institution in North Carolina except 
possibly the University, they said, was offering a course in ag- 
ricultural chemistry that in any way was equal to the course 



Baptist Academies in North Carolina 55 

Drysdale offered. For some unascertained reason Drysdale re- 
mained only one year. 

In only one of these associational academies did the separate 
school for women have any important development. This was the 
Mount Vernon Springs Academy. It was opened at the same time 
as the male academy in January, 1856. It was in charge of Miss 
Virginia Royster of a family of prominence, a woman of superior 
ability, later to become the wife of Rev. J. K. Howell and the 
mother of Professor Vernon Howell, who established the school 
of pharmacy of the University of North Carolina. The assistant 
in music was Mrs. R. P. Jones, wife of the principal of the male 
academy, who was said to have no equal as a teacher of music 
in North Carolina. During the Civil War the operation of both 
the male and the female academies was suspended, but on Sep- 
tember 28, 1863, the female academy was opened under charge 
of Dr. William Hooper, grandson of the signer of the Declaration 
of Independence and stepson of Reverend Joseph Caldwell, first 
president of the University of North Carolina, and himself with 
a distinguished academic career, having been in succession a 
member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina, acting 
president of the University of South Carolina, president of Wake 
Forest College, and president of Chowan Female Institute. As- 
sociated with him in the conduct of the school was his son, 
Professor T. C. Hooper. The instruction was not confined to 
girls, however, for Dr. Hooper taught classes of boys in Latin, 
mathematics, and other high school subjects. 

A great contribution which these Baptist academies made to 
the general educational life of the state was the regulation, com- 
mon to them all, that nothing of a sectarian religious nature 
should be taught in their classes. 

Declarations to this effect are to be found in great number in 
the minutes of the North Carolina Baptist associations. Probably 
the most comprehensive of these statements is that written by 
Dr. Samuel Wait, and found in the minutes of the Beulah As- 
sociation for 1847, of which the following is an extract: "The 
Baptists, while they urge the vital importance of instruction in 
the schools on the fundamental principles of the Christian sys- 
tem, do not accord to teachers in schools the right to form, shape 
and control the minds of their pupils in relation to those points 



56 The North Carolina Historical Review 

which constitute the badge of distinction among the respective 
Christian denominations of our country." 9 On account of this 
religious freedom other denominations freely sent their sons and 
daughters to these schools. Several Presbyterian families moved 
to the vicinity of the Mount Vernon Springs school and later 
built a church near the female academy, and the Methodists 
rented the Washington House for their parsonage. 

Another feature of these associational academies must be 
mentioned. Though many of their students came from the towns 
and cities, they were rural schools, designed to serve rural people, 
and at a minimum of expense. The churches of one or more Bap- 
tist associations, often representing no great wealth, by uniting 
were able to provide handsomely in the way of school plant, 
equipment, and instruction, at a cost within the reach of families 
of moderate means, and to do it to an extent never before dreamed 
of in North Carolina. And in regard to patronage, these Baptist 
academies in general had a larger number of students than other 
academies of the state. Though the enrollment fluctuated with 
the better schools in some years, there were capacity numbers of 
students, seventy-five, one hundred, or even one hundred and 
fifty. 

After these schools had been in operation only a few years 
there came the disastrous Civil War, which before it ended 
brought the suspension of all or nearly all schools in North Caro- 
lina. Though some of the Baptist academies survived for several 
years, before the end of the war one after another had closed, 
usually for lack of students. 

However, not all was lost in the war. The widespread educa- 
tional interest which accompanied the establishment and develop- 
ment of the associational academies remained. In most instances 
their buildings and grounds and general equipment had suffered 
no great damage, and were still the property of the associations. 
One of these, Mars Hill College, has been under the control of a 
Baptist board of trustees through all its years, and with short 
periods of suspension has been in continuous operation since 
1856. Until it became a junior college in 1924 it had for years 
been the largest and best high school in the state, and its well pre- 



Other comprehensive statements on this subject are those of J. J. James, Minutes of 
the Beulah Association for 1850, and of E. W. West, Minutes of the Beulah Association 
for 1853. 



Baptist Academies in North Carolina 57 

pared graduates were coveted by all our colleges and universities. 
Today it is the largest and best junior college of the Baptists 
in the United States. Two of them, those at Warsaw and at Tay- 
lorsville, after only a short suspension, were re-opened and con- 
tinued as associational academies until well in the present cen- 
tury. In the case of the others, the associations permitted the use 
of the property without charge to approved masters, who often 
found their schools attended by many young men eager to avail 
themselves of educational advantages which had not existed be- 
fore for years. 

Here ends my consideration of the Baptist academies which 
were in operation before 1860. It would seem that any history of 
the high schools of the state before the rise of the public high 
schools must be regarded as incomplete if it fails to take account 
of them. 

In the forty years following the Civil War there was among 
the Baptists of North Carolina a second development of interest 
in academies and high schools, which in extent and promise was 
as important as the first. 

In the dark days of Reconstruction, when the New South was 
a-borning, the Baptists of North Carolina, in the ways already 
mentioned and other ways to be told of, had a part in fanning the 
spark of educational interest and keeping it alive. Before the end 
of the century, by the co-operation of many of the Baptist asso- 
ciations of the state and the Baptist State Convention of North 
Carolina, they had established a Baptist system of high schools. 

Of this development I have already made and published a brief 
account. On this occasion I have space for only the barest outline. 10 

Let us recall the fact that until 1905 there were no public high 
schools in North Carolina except the few operated as a part of 
the graded school systems of certain of our cities and larger 
towns. As late as 1896 these numbered not more than eight or 
ten. For high school instruction the only provisions were the few 
denominational academies that had survived the wreck of years, 
and private schools. Of the latter the number had greatly in- 
creased in the years from 1885 to 1895. This was due chiefly to 
the fact that in many of the numerous new railroad towns some 
of the enterprising citizens realized the need of schools for their 



10 History of Wake Forest College, III, 293-300. 



58 The North Carolina Historical Review 

children and thought to provide them by the erection of school 
buildings. In most instances these schools proved failures. The 
local patronage was small and often there were few boarding 
students. Obviously the revenues were too meagre to attract a 
competent teacher, who, while usually given the use of the build- 
ing rent free, was expected to pay all the other school expenses 
and also to provide for his own board and lodging. Very rarely 
was such a school operated at a profit, even when kept by the 
ablest of teachers and well managed and loyally supported. High 
schools within the reach of North Carolina parents of modest 
means were rapidly passing out of existence. 

Under such conditions the question of providing high school 
instruction for their children was very serious for the country 
people of North Carolina, and in particular for the Baptists, 
most of whom were small farmers, independent, but with no 
large incomes. Quite naturally they began again to think of 
associational academies which had proved so successful before 
the Civil War. Two or three of these, Warsaw Academy, United 
Baptist Institute at Taylorsville, and Bethel Hill Academy, had 
survived through all the years or were again in operation. New 
associational academies, such as Haywood Institute, opened in 
1884, were organized. Before the end of the century there were 
about a dozen such schools. "That which gives the greatest hope 
for the education of the vast Baptist host of North Carolina/* 
it is stated in a report to the Baptist State Convention of 1898, 
"is the establishment of secondary schools. A large number of the 
associations have erected academies to prepare for college boys 
and girls purposing to obtain a thorough education, and to sub- 
serve the educational interest of the far larger number who can- 
not go to college. We recommend the establishment of such a 
school in every association in the state." 

Stimulated by this and other like resolutions of the Baptist 
State Convention, associations continued to establish and operate 
academies. It was generally recognized, however, that while the 
Baptists in the western section of the state were numerous, with 
the census of 1890 showing that of 125,000 professing Christians 
in twenty western counties, 75,000 were members of Baptist 
churches, nearly all the mountain associations were too weak 
financially to maintain good high schools. To help them in this 



Baptist Academies in North Carolina 59 

work the aid of the Southern Baptist Convention was sought and 
obtained in the year 1899. Afterwards for more than thirty years 
that Convention made the Baptist schools of this section, ten 
or twelve in number, members of its system of "Mountain 
Schools," making annual appropriations for their support and 
providing a superintendent who regularly visited them and co- 
operated with their faculties and friends in matters pertaining to 
the conduct of the schools and plans for their financial strength- 
ening and improvement. In this way these schools were enabled 
to become among the best and most largely attended academies 
in North Carolina. Among them were such noted academies as 
Fruitland Institute, Hendersonville ; Haywood Institute, Clyde; 
Sylva Collegiate Institute, Sylva; Yancey Collegiate Institute, 
Burnsville; Mars Hill College; and Bowman Academy, Bakers- 
ville. Others were located in the recesses of the North Carolina 
mountains. One of these was Bellevue Academy, ten miles south 
of Murphy. All gave excellent academic instruction, and through 
their wise and inspirational principals and other teachers exer- 
cised a powerful and stimulating moral and religious influence 
on their students, who still speak of them with reverence and 
love. 11 

The establishment of associational high schools was greatly 
accelerated by the plan for a system of schools, with an academy 
in every association, or central in the territory of a group of asso- 
ciations, all co-operating with the Baptist colleges and providing 
them with an unfailing supply of students. The suggestion for 
this system of schools was first presented to the Baptist State 
Convention in 1900, and thereafter gained much favor both in 
the Convention and out of it. "The complete organization of our 
school work in the state will affect every fibre of our denomina- 
tional life," it was said in a report in 1901. "There must be one 
other highly helpful step," said J. W. Bailey, writing editorially 
in the Biblical Recorder, "the formation of a system of Christian 
schools. The denominational colleges must get in touch earlier 
with a supply of students. . . . this must be done by means of the 
secondary, or high school. Nothing can shake a Christian system 
of higher and secondary schools standing for general religious 



n Annuals of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, 1900-1930; Annuals of the 
Southern Baptist Convention, Home Mission Board reports, under head of "Mountain Schools," 
1900-1930; Annuals of Western Baptist Convention of North Carolina, 1900-1901. 



60 The North Carolina Historical Review 

education. Imagine Wake Forest College and the Baptist Univer- 
sity for Women (later Meredith College) reinforced in the field 
by twenty academies, each in vital alliance with these institu- 
tions and each other." 12 

During all these years the Baptists of the state were expressing 
their satisfaction at the increasing interest in public education 
and the impulse given it by the "Educational Governor," Charles 
B. Aycock. "There has never been a time," reads a report to 
the Caldwell Association of 1903, "when the Baptists of the state 
were so alive to education as now." Like reports are to be found 
in the published minutes of nearly all the forty-five Baptist as- 
sociations of these years. But while urging that it was the part 
of the state to provide for common schools, the Baptists of North 
Carolina were coming to the conviction that it was their responsi- 
bility to have a large part in providing academies and high 
schools to fill the gap between the elementary schools and the 
colleges. They saw that the efforts to accomplish this by the 
creation of "Special Tax" schools had not been generally suc- 
cessful. 

It was in this situation that the Baptist plan for a state-wide 
system of Baptist schools was presented to the State Convention 
and received its approval, and was received with much favor by 
the churches and associations. Here was a plan by which parents 
who lived in the country and did not have the advantage of the 
tax-supported schools of the towns and cities could educate their 
sons and daughters at a minimum of expense and under Christian 
influences. Little by little every school could be improved until 
it should have adequate equipment of buildings, libraries, and 
laboratories, and a faculty sufficient in number and training to 
provide the very best in high school education and to fit its 
students for life or for college. The hope was that each would 
become a center of educational, cultural, and religious influence 
for the district it served. 

After several years' work a committee of which J. W. Bailey 
was chairman made its final report to the Baptist State Conven- 
tion of 1905. It showed that in addition to four colleges, there 
were twenty-five academies in North Carolina under Baptist 
control. Of these sixteen were associational academies. These 



12 Biblical Recorder, July 22, 1903. 



Baptist Academies in North Carolina 61 

latter had 180 teachers, 3,802 students, and property valued at 
$168,000. On the recommendation of the report the Convention 
began and until 1930 continued to publish in its annuals statisti- 
cal tables of these schools, giving information as to the number 
of teachers and students, property and income. 

The plan and purpose of this system of schools were such as 
that indicated above, and before 1905 a good start had been made 
towards their realization. The schools were being improved and 
the Baptists were rallying to their support. They already had by 
far the largest system of high schools, either state or denomina- 
tional, that had ever existed in the state, and in the Convention 
of December, 1905, they were planning with joy and confidence 
for further development. 13 

In the early months of 1905, however, the North Carolina 
General Assembly had approved a new departure in the educa- 
tional program of the state, which in the next quarter of a cen- 
tury proved the utter undoing of every private and denomina- 
tional high school in the state that did not gain a measure of 
safety by becoming a junior college. This new movement was 
that for a state- wide system of public high schools, rural as well 
as urban. It owed its origin and much of its development to the 
vision and wisdom of Dr. J. Y. Joyner, then State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction. Under his direction, slowly at first, one 
tax-supported high school to a county, these schools began to oc- 
cupy the field. Soon, responsive to an ever increasing demand, 
more and more public high schools were established and thronged 
with students. The Baptists realized the danger to their own 
schools and made a valiant fight to keep them. But the struggle 



13 History of Wake Forest College, III, 296, ff. "The schools named in Bailey's report of 
1905, with dates of founding, were: Associational Academies — Atlantic Institute, Morehead 
City, 1900; South Fork Institute, 1902; Winterville High School, 1900; Yancey Collegiate 
Institute, 1901; Round Hill Academy, 1899; Sylva Collegiate Institute, 1899; Lenoir Academy 
1898; Haywood Institute, 1883; Macon High School, 1903; Pee Dee Baptist Institute, 1898 
Fruitland Institute, 1899; Sandy Creek Association School, Mount Vernon Springs Academy 
1897; Murphy Baptist School, 1901; Bowman Academy, Mitchell Collegiate Institute, 1899 
Wingate School, 1896; Sandy Run, merged in the Boiling Springs Academy, 1905-1906 
Belleview High School (in Swain County), 1905. The above schools were classed as associa- 
tional academies, but several of them were already being supported by the Home Mission 
Board. Other schools listed in Bailey's report were Bethel Hill (owned by Baptists), 1856; 
Robeson Institute, administered by the trustees of Lumberton Baptist Church, 1893; Mars 
Hill College, chartered Baptist school, 1857; Orange Grove Academy, Cane Creek Church, 
1866; Yadkin Mineral Springs Academy, 1899; Buie's Creek Academy, private, 1887; Dell 
School, with Baptist trustees, 1902; and Leaksville-Spray Institute, chartered by Baptists, 
1901. To these were added in a few years: Boiling Springs Academy, 1906; Liberty-Piedmont 
School, 1904; Mountain Park High School, 1913; Mountain View, 1913; Orphanage, Mills 
Home, first report, 1906; Salemburg, afterwards Pineland Schools for Girls, 1899; South 
Mountain, Bostic, Miss Ora Hull, 1921; Stinceon Institute, 1921. There were many other 
schools under Baptist supervision and with Baptist principals, many of which were approved 
by Baptist associations." 



62 The North Carolina Historical Review 

nought availed. One by one, yielding to the inevitable, they went 
out of existence. The "Mountain Schools," having the support of 
the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 
survived longer than the others. It was with much sorrow and 
many heart-burnings that the mountain people gave them up. 
They remembered that it was the Baptist academies that had 
first rescued them from the curse of ignorance and had wrought 
a great transformation among them, and they regarded them 
with affection. When the change had to be made, the public 
school officials were kind and sympathetic, and made it in a way 
that proved of advantage to all. In many instances the school 
properties were purchased and their officers and teachers re- 
tained. But great was their sorrow when after resorting to all 
possible means to save them the friends of the schools finally had 
to consent to give up institutions for which they had made great 
sacrifices, and which were associated with the happiest and most 
ennobling experiences of their lives. A typical expression is this 
from the minutes of the Haywood Association of 1927: "The 
greatest loss the Haywood Association has ever known was 
when Haywood Institute closed its doors." 



LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO 
ANDREW JOHNSON 

Edited by 
Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 

From R. J. Powell 37 

Washington D.C. 
21st Oct. 1865. 
To the President : 

I would respectfully state in reference to the Internal 
Revenue officers appointed in N. Carolina, that not, a single one 
was appointed upon the recommendation of Gov. Holden- 

A few weeks ago, I had a distinct and positive understanding 
with Commissioner Orton, to the effect that all action in reference 
to the Districting the State, and appointing Collectors and As- 
sessors, should be suspended till the State should be districted 
for Congress, whom those districts Seven in number should be 
adopted as the Internal Revenue districts, and that no appoint- 
ments should be made save on the recommendation of Gov. 
Holden- 

I say such was our positive agreement, and of which I im- 
mediately informed the Governor- 
Yet within three days thereafter an appointment was made- 
Two days ago I received a telegram from the Governor, saying 
the State had been districted and asking that my understanding 
would be rigidly observed- I called on Mr. Orton, and learn from 
him and his chief Clerk that a commission for a Mr. Thompson 
as collector of the old 2nd. district had been prepared- notwith- 
standing another had been recommended for that position by Gov. 
Holden- I then called on Mr. Chandler, who ordered a suspension 
of action for a few days- I again called on Mr. Whitman Chief 
Clerk of the Internal Revenue Bureau yesterday - and learned 
that he regarded Hedrick as the representative of our party in 
N.C. and said it was but fair that the offices should be divided be- 
tween the two parties there- I informed him that there ought 
not to be but one party there- I objected to the production of 
parties then by favoring opposition to Gov. Holden- 

I will here remark that in all of the Departments, as a general 
thing, I find the National men friendly disposed, and desirous of 
sustaining Gov. Holden, whilst the radicals, are disposed to a 
contrary course. 

With high respect 

Very truly Yours 

State Agent for N Carolina 

37 The last letter previously published in this series was dated November 4, 1865, but this 
and other letters written in October, 1865, have been found. 

[63] 



64 



The North Carolina Historical Review 



Richard H. Battle,Senior 38 



Hon. Thomas Corwin 
Washington D.C. 



Raleigh N.C. 
Oct . 21 st 1865 



Dear Sir : I have the honor to enclose to you a petition in behalf 
of the Hon. Z.B. Vance of this state & to ask that you will do him 
the favor of handing it to the President- 39 1 have understood that 
you are a friend of Gov. Vance's, & it has therefore occurred to 
me to ask the kindness at your hands- If the papers were not sent 
direct to the Presdt. it would possibly fail to attract his attention- 
The petition was drawn & presented privately to the members 
of the Convention who signed it without Gov. Vance's knowledge 
& consent, but several of us his friends hope that if the privilege 
asked is granted it may result in good to him- We have thought 
no better disposition could be made of it than to entrust it to 
you. 

38 Richard H. Battle, the son of William Horn Battle and Lucy Martin Plummer Battle, 
was born on December 3, 1835. He attended Mrs. James F. Taylor's school in Raleigh and 
graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1854; was an instructor in Greek and 
mathematics at his alma mater; was licensed to practice law in 1858; served in the Con- 
federate Army as a lieutenant from 1862 to September, 1863, when he became private 
secretary to Governor Vance; resigned in August, 1864, to become auditor of the state; 
served as judge of the Superior Court in 1884 and 1885; was made judge of the fourth 
circuit court of the United States; was president of the board of directors of Rex Hospital; 
served as a director of the Citizens National Bank of Raleigh, the Raleigh Cotton Mills, and 
the Neuse River Cotton Mills; and was active in civic and religious affairs. Ashe, Biographical 
History of North Carolina, VI, 39-43. 

39 This petition appears in the papers of President Johnson : 

Raleigh N C. Oct. 14 th 1865 
To His Excellency Andrew Johnson 
President of Our United States 

The undersigned members of the convention of North Carolina now in Session respectfully 
ask that the parole to Z. B. Vance be so extended as to allow him to visit Washington City 
by any route through North Carolina 



J M McCorkle 


Wm. A. Wright 


E. G. Reade, Prest. 


R. Swann 


R. M. Henry 


Lewis Thompson 


P. H. Winston, Jr 


A M Ives 


Allmand A McKay 


S. L. Jones 


S. F. Phillips 


T. N. Alexander 


James R. Love 


John Berry 


L L Polk 


Wm Sloan 


Jno. Norfleet 


R. H. Winborne 


Chas C. Clark 


Natt McLean 


F. G. Simmons 


D. H. Starbuck 


Rob. B. Gilliam 


Thomas I Faison 


T. Wilson 


Tod R. Caldwell 


John Pool 


R H Ward 


John T Kennedy 


B. F. Moore 


G. W. Logan 


T H Joyner 


Danl L Russell 


C Perkins 


D. Beam 


R. S. Donnell 


Isaac N Sanders 


W. S. Hanrahan 


Jno. B. Odom 


M. E. Manly 


J R Stubbs 


S. S. Jackson 


James Rumley 


D. B. Nicholson 


Wm. Barrow 


Zebedee Rush 


Bedford Brown 


D. G. McRae 


H. Willey 


D. M. Furches 


Edw. d Conigland 


N M Kay 


Thos J Jar vis 


W. T. ' Faircloth 


W. W. Brickell 


E. M. Stevenson 


Wm A. Allen 


A H. Joyce 


J. S. Spencer 


Saml Forkum 


Eugene Grissom 


Th Bagden 


W. L. Smith 


G. W. Bradley 


E. B. Lyon 


J W. McLaughlin 


J R Ellis 


R. J. Williams 


M McGehee 


Giles McCane 


D D Ferebee 


Duncan Kelly 


Alney Burgin 


J. C. Johnston 


Wm Eaton Jr 


S. P. Smith 


S. H. Walkup 


A. B. Baines 


R P Buxton 


Simon Godwin 


S. S. Bingham 


A. J. Jones 


H. A. McLean 





In accordance with Battle's request Corwin enclosed the above with this comment: 

W City 25 th Oct. 65 
To the President 

I am requested by the gentlemen whose letter I enclose herewith to hand to yr. Ex- 
cellency the petition of the members of the N Carolina convention, praying the enlargement 
of the parole of the late confederate Gov Vance. 

It seems his Parole confines him to his own home in N Carolina, I wrote him sometime 
since, advising him to come to Washington, & seek a personal interview with the President 
as the best method of obtaining his pardon. I suppose he wishes to visit W City for that 
purpose. The letter I inclose relates in part, to the petition of a Mr. Ashe, of whom I know 
nothing 

Very respectfully Yr Obt Servt. 
Thomas Corwin" 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 65 

If as a an entire stranger, I am not presuming too much upon 
your kindness, I would ask that when you call upon the President 
with the petition, you will request him to consider the application 
for pardon filed by the Hon. Thos. S. Ashe of N.C. about the mid- 
dle of June last- 40 He was Senator elect to the Confederate Con- 
gress, though he had up to April 1861 been an earnest supporter 
of the Union ; & his application was favorably endorse by our Pro- 
visional Governor. He is my father-in-law, but I make this re- 
quest without his knowledge- If to comply with it would cost 
you any time or trouble, you will please take no notice of it- 
Very respectfully 
Your obt. Servant 

The fact that I was once private secretary to Gov. Vance will 
seem as a sufficient reason for my troubling you in his behalf- 



From Romulus M. Saunders 41 

Raleigh Oct 25 - '65 



D r .Powel 
Dear Sir- 



As I suppose you to be the son of Mr. Powel of Richmond 
County formerly a member of the State council a warm political 
friend of mine I have taken this liberty of enclosing to you a note 
addressed to the President by Mr. Reade the President of our 
State Convention recommending in the warmest term Gen. 1 B.T. 
Bragg for a pardon 42 - and as I have some fear that my letter 
may have miscarried not having heard from you - I again take 



^Thomas S. Ashe (July 21, 1812-Feb. 4, 1887) was born at Hawsfields, Alamance County, 
and was educated at Bingham's Academy and the University of North Carolina. After 
graduation from the University in 1832, he read law in Judge Thomas Ruffin's office; was 
admitted to the bar in 1834, and began to practice in Wadesboro, North Carolina; was a 
member of the house of commons in 1842; was solicitor of the fifth judicial district of the 
state, 1847-1851; was elected to the North Carolina senate in 1854; served in the Confederate 
House of Representatives, 1861-1864; was elected to the Confederate Senate but never served; 
was a member of the House in Congress from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1877; was elected 
associate judge of the North Carolina supreme court in 1876 and reelected in 1886 and 
served until his death. Richard H. Battle married his daughter, Annie Ruffin Ashe. 
Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 177A-1927, 561; Ashe, Biographical His- 
tory of North Carolina, V, 39-43; John H. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs of North 
Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians, 6-8. 

41 Romulus Mitchell Saunders (March 3, 1791-April 21, 1867) was born near Milton, North 
Carolina; attended the public schools and the University of North Carolina; studied law 
and was admitted to the bar in 1812; was a member of the house of commons in 1815, 1817, 
1850, and 1852 and served two years as speaker of the house of commons; served in the 
House in Congress from March 4, 1821, to March 3, 1827; was attorney general of North 
Carolina from 1828 to 1831; served as judge of the superior court, 1835-1840 and 1852-1856; 
and was United States minister to Spain, 1846-1849. Biographical Directory of the American 
Congress, 177A-1927, 1495. 

42 Braxton Bragg (1817-1876), the son of Thomas Bragg and Margaret Crossland Bragg, 
graduated from West Point and participated in the Seminole War, the War with Mexico, 
and the Civil War. He was with the Confederate Army at the battles of Shiloh, Chattanooga, 
and elsewhere. In 1864 he went to Richmond and acted as a military adviser to Jefferson 
Davis and accompanied him in his flight to Georgia. After the Civil War he became a 
civil engineer. Dictionary of American Biography, II, 585-586. 



6$ The North Carolina Historical Review 

the liberty of invoking you to do me the great favor of looking 
after the papers heretofore sent to Washington for the pardon 
of Gen 1 Johnson 43 The first were presented by Col. Markly 
of Frederick consisting of Gen 1 Johnson's Petition a letter 
from myself with Gov. Holden endorsement calling my letter 
to the notice of the President I after this again wrote 
the Gov claiming his interference as General Johnson was 
to be now considered a citizen of this State as he had final- 
ly left Maryland - having lost his home He had married 
my daughter my House had been the home of his wife for 
the past four years- He had been licensed as a lawyer by our 
Supreme Court - had been appointed under a decree of equity in 
a will filed by my wife & children against the Executors of her 
Father as a trustee to recover such property as had been divised 
by her Father and which had been taken possession of on the 
evacuation of Charleston which Gen J. is now asking to recover 
but is unable to do so far the want of the President's pardon I 
must beg of you to bring the facts to the notice of the President 
and to ask his favorable consideration & as I am now 75 years 
old in bad health - You will learn what has been done from Mr. 
Reaves the Presidents private secretary - 

I must again intreat your friendly interference as a North 
Carolinian and shall we feel under the lasting gratitude 

Your 



From Joseph L. Cannon 44 

State of North Carolina, 
Executive Department. 
Raleigh, N.C., Nov. 13th ,1865 
His Excellency 

The President [of the] United States 
Sir. 

Governor Holden is confined to his bed from illness and directs 
me to write you a few lines. 

Only twenty three counties have been heard from, the returns 
of which leave the election of Governor uncertain. Governor 
Holden does not despair of his election. 

Hon. William A. Graham has been elected to the State Senate 
from Orange County. Josiah Turner is elected to Congress from 



43 Bradley Tyler Johnson (1829-1903), son of Charles Washington Johnson and Eleanor 
Murdock (Tyler) Johnson, was born in Frederick, Maryland. On June 25, 1851, he married 
Jane Claudia Saunders. He helped to organize the first Maryland regiment for the Con- 
federate Army, and served in the campaign of the Valley of Virginia. He also commanded 
the Maryland cavalry under Wade Hampton. In November, 1864, he was sent to Salisbury, 
North Carolina, where he restored order in the prison. After the Civil War he practiced 
law in Richmond and in Baltimore. He was active in politics. Dictionary of American 
Biography, X, 90-91. 

44 Joseph L. Cannon was private secretary to Governor Holden, Hamilton, Correspondence 
of Jonathan Worth, II, 44 In. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 67 

his district, and Rufus Y. Mc Aden to the House of Commons 
from Alamance County. 45 

They are unpardoned and have been recommended for Sus- 
pension by the Governor. It is believed they will soon apply in 
person to your Excellency for Pardon. 

Governor Graham is the originator and leader of all the dis- 
affection in North Carolina. His great desire is to unite enough 
of the old whigs to the Secessionists the advocates of the payment 
of the Rebel Debt and disaffected men to break down the National 
Union Party. His opposition to you is as strong as it is to Gover- 
nor Holden. Jonathan Worth, Josiah Turner and Rufus Y. Mc- 
Aden were put forward at his instance against the repeated 
remonstrances of all the leading union men in the State. 

Josiah Turner canvassed the district greatly exciting and in- 
creasing disaffection. The body of his speeches consisted of ridi- 
cule and slander of the democratic party. He declared "he would 
not vote for you to save your life." Mc Aden has done all he could 
for the same purposes. 

The Union men of the State believe that if your Excellency 
will refuse to Pardon these man, disaffection will be struck a 
death blow in North Carolina, and will not again be able to rise, 
The Governor greatly desires that these man may not be Par- 
doned, but may receive a merited rebuke at the hands of your 
Excellency. 

I am Most Respectfully 
Your obdt Servt. 
Aid de Camp 



From John M. Davis 

The following Telegram received at Washington 3 40 P M. Nov. 
14, 1865. 

From Newberne N C. " 14 1865. 

His Ex Andrew Johnson 
Prest US 

Accept the thanks of the Loyal Citizens of Newberne that the 
state of North Carolina retains the services of her loyal Pro- 
visional Governor, in accordance with the wishes of her loyal 
citizens. 

Acting Mayor 
Town Newberne 

45 Rufus Y. McAden was a member of the North Carolina legislature in 1862, and served 
several successive terms. In 1866 he was speaker of the house. He was also prominent in 
manufacturing circles. Hamilton, Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, II, 793n, 1074-1075. 



68 The North Carolina Historical Review 

From R. J. Powell 

United States Military Telegraph, 

War Department 

Raleigh N.C. 

10 A M Novr 26. 1865 
His Excy 
A Johnson 
President of U.S. 

Dear Sir! 

Since my arrival here, I find the rebelious element aided by 
the aristocracy much stronger and more bitter than I had sup- 
posed before I left Washington and they seem to have full power 
in their hands- Govr Holden is improving but is still confined to 
his bed, all profess a desire to carry out your wishes, yet Graham, 
Vance and other leaders are industriously deceiving the masses 
as to your views. 

Our leading friends are of opinion that is of the greatest im- 
portance that your wishes be made known in such manner that 
they can't be misunderstood by any one. I think that if you can 
send or telegraph something as follows it will do great good- 

"The results of the recent election in N. Carolina have greatly 
damaged the prospects of the state in the restoration of its 
Governmental relations. Should the action and the spirit of the 
Legislature be in the same direction, it will greatly increase the 
mischief already done and might be fatal. It is hoped the action 
and spirit manifested by the Legislature will be so directed as 
rather to repair than to increase the difficulties under which the 
state has already placed itself-" 46 

Our friends are very confident that such a message from you 
would do great good, hence I have taken the liberty to suggest 
it. Please let me hear from you immediately 

Truly yours 



From William W. Holden 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 7 10 P M. Nov 
27 1865. 

Executive Dept Raleigh Nov 

The President of the United States 

Sir 

Your dispatch has been received I am very grateful to you 
for this additional proof of your confidence & friendship my 
health has much improved hope to be able in a few days to at- 



49 The proposed message was incorporated verbatim in President Johnson's telegram to 
Holden, dated November 27, 1865. The telegram is published in Hamilton, Reconstruction, 141. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 69 

tend actively to my duties I trust your dispatch will have a good 
effect upon the Legislature but the indications thus far are not 
satisfactory- 
There is a tie in the Senate between Settle unionist and Ferebee 
secessionist for the speakership-tomorrow or next day will de- 
cide, Mr Phillips elected speaker of Commons, 47 not satisfactory 
to the Unionist two of the clerks of the Commons Secessionists 
McAden of Alamance unpardoned rebel has taken his seat and 
votes, 

I will oust him by force if necessary as soon as the Houses are 
organized, Gov. Graham presented his credentials in the Senate 
but did not claim his seat. He requested me to inform you that 
He had been elected to the senate from the county of Orange & 
He desires to know your determination in regard to his pardon. 
I do this as a matter of form. I do not advise His pardon. 

He ought not to be pardoned at this time, He is the head & 
front of the present opposition to the administration & his friends 
are retarding the work of reconstruction. The worth or Graham 
faction are said to be alarmed & may offer a compromise- but 
on the other hand it is the current talk that Graham & Vance 
are to be the senators 

Rest assured Sir, I will do all in my power to prevent bad men 
from running our poor old state, 

Very Respectfully 



From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 4 20 P M. Nov 
27 1865. 

Raleigh N.C. Nov. 27th 1865 
The President 

Your telegram to Holden received Many thanks for it. Phillips 
of Orange is Speaker of the House of Commons without opposi- 
tion.Two (2) ballots for speaker of the Senate, adjourned with- 
out electing.Ferrebee the Worth candidate for speaker of the 
Senate is one of the nine who voted in the Convention against 
declaring the secession ordinance a nullity. 48 

Truly yours 



47 Samuel Field Phillips was born in Harlem, New York; graduated from the University 
of North Carolina in 1841; read law under David L. Swain; was a member of the house of 
commons from Orange County, 1852, 1854, 1864, and 1865, and at the latter session was 
unanimously chosen speaker of the house; and was appointed solicitor general of the United 
States. He married Fannie Stone, a granddaughter of Governor Stone. Wheeler, Reminiscences, 
62-63; Hamilton, Reconstruction, 142. 

48 The election of Thomas Settle as speaker of the house over Dennis Ferebee was con- 
sidered a victory for Holden. Hamilton, Reconstruction, 142. 



70 The North Carolina Historical Review 

From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 12 10 P M. 
Nov 27 1865. 

Raleigh Nov 27, 1865 

The President 

Pardon me for calling your attention to my telegram of last 
night. Our friends here implore your kindly assistance as indi- 
cated in that Telegram and feel great confidence as to the great 
result that may be produced. Not only to our State but to the 
country at large. In addition to the efficient support it will en- 
able them to give to your Administration 

Very Truly Yours 

From R. J. Powell 

The following telegram received at Washington, 1PM. Nov 
28 1865. 

Raleigh N C 

President U S 

Two of our friends elected to the House of Commons Have 
not yet received their pardons, J R Logan of Cleaveland County, 
fifty five years of age, was County surveyor & tax Collector 
in that County. J J Lucas of Bladen County was a postmaster at 
a petty County office. Gov Holden requests that you will order 
their pardons & inform him by telegraph so that they can take 
their seats tomorrow Gov Holden telegraphed last night, your 
kind telegram of yesterday will be published tonight. 

Truly Yours 

From William W. Holden 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 9-10 P M. Dec. 
1 st 1865. 

Raleigh Dec 1st 
President of U.S. 

Sir 

The legislature has ratified with but six dissenting voices the 
congressional amendment abolishing slavery, five Judges have 
been elected all good selections, Those of my provisional appoint- 
ments have been confirmed. Your despatch has had a good effect 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 71 

but I cannot predict the result as to the senatorships, Senators 
will be elected on monday It is believed that Gov Graham will 
be elected. There appears to be a clear anti administration or 
secession majority on Joint ballot. I have not changed my opinion 
in regard to Gov Graham. He is more subdued however & may 
take occasion in a day or two to define his position. There are 
a - 11 kinds of combinations here but I still hope for the best. 

Very Resp'y 
Pro Gov 



From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 4 05 P M. Dec 
1 1865. 

From Raleigh Dec 1 1865 

The President 

Gov Holden directs me to respectfully ask that you order the 
pardon of Wm K Lanes of Wayne County N C & notify the Gov 
by telegraph 

Truly Yours 



From Jennie Brin 

Raleigh N. Carolina, 
December l, st 1865. 
President Johnson: 

Ladies,I believe at all times are recognized as privileged char- 
acters, exercising my perogative as such, I address you, believing 
that you will at least peruse these lines. If I seem to lack respect 
attribute it to the head, not the heart, I mean to address you 
with the respect due the man whose actions show that his soul 
expands with magnanimity, & that he is truly great & noble. 

I embrace this method of asking a favor. Do not turn away - 
it is no for "an office for a friend" nor the "pardon of my self 
or friends", / do no feel that any crime lies at my door, unless 
hating the yankees with an intensity that defies expression be 
such - but it is to ask that you visit your native state and this 
your native city, come as a private individual, so disguised as 
that none will know you - mingle enough with the people, hear 
their sentiments towards yourself - see the people as they are - 
in short come, use your own eyes and ears instead of Gov. 
Holden's 

You know that this state was slow to secede- slow to enter 
a war that she vainly,but bravely tried to ward off- when it 
came,she could but enter it, and nobly did she do her part in fight- 



72 The North Carolina Historical Review 

ing, as she felt then, for liberty. The old north state may be 
wrong in many ways, but hypocritical never! 

Being known as a rebel, I have been thrown much among those 
who have been the most rebellious ; I have conversed with Caro- 
lina's best & noblest sons- and I have never yet heard one word 
spoken against you, or the course you have persued- They assert 
their willingness to suport you, but like myself they cannot be- 
lieve that you and W. W. Holden are one and the same person- 
It is generally believed that Holden was appointed provisional 
governor from necessity not choice- We believe you to be con- 
sistent while we know, as does all the reading world that Holden 
has no idea what that word means-Office is his god and he would 
sell his soul for it (Is it treason to speak thus of a provisional 
governor? - if so - I am a traitoress-) The people of N.C. look 
upon you as a generous, kind and noble man - who is willing 
to forgive those who swear allegiance to the government you 
represent ; and while yankee soldiers and Holden are not beloved, 
you are- We do not, cannot, will not believe that you are such 
a man as Holden- and while you see abusive articles referring 
to him, you find nothing of the kind in connection with your 
name-Pray tell me what confidence we can put in a man who is 
first a "methodist"- then an "Episcopalian" - One year a Demo- 
crat next a Whig- then a "know nothing" - a ranting secessionist 
then a Unionist, can such a "turn coat" have the confidence of the 
people ? Never, Never ! Yet Holden would lead you to believe that 
we are working against you & the government, while he knows 
as well as we do it is not you or the government but W. W. 
Holden, whom we would work against. We know him too well to 
love him! - too well to trust him, and if you would have N.C. 
love her governor give her another whom she can trust take him 
from us? 

The man elected by the voice of the people to the gubernatorial 
chair, has never been a secessionist, has ever been for the union. 
He is the people's choice ; Holden never was and never can be - 
he is too much of a demogogue. 

Come to Carolina, learn for yourself that we have been grossly 
misrepresented, learn, what you may never learn in Washington 
that the old north state can and will submit to the powers that 
be- We have been called a people of common sense, at least- and 
does not that teach us that we are powerless - We are tired of 
military law- and N.C. is willing to go back to her old place in 
the Union, not merely willing but anxious - We know as well as 
you do that we were over-powered and that to-day as Poland, we 
lie powerless - helpless worn weary, wounded, crushed and ruined 
at the feet of a mighty conquerer. Unlike Poland, we are in the 
hand of a "generous foe" - (no I must call you friend, if you will 
allow a little rebel girl to do so-) one whose heart yearns over 
us, and while that one is beloved, and reverened he is not a traitor 
to the erring asses- Come and see that N. Carolina has lost none 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 73 

of her nobleness - and that she feels that you are her trusted 
friend. 

I believe that God in his infinite love gave us into your hands 
- ( I mean to cast no reproach on him, whose sad death gave you 
the presidential chair) and that He is watching over us, and that 
He warms your heart to feel for the poor downtrodden children 
of the South- May He guide guard, protect and externally pre- 
serve you ! 

Forgive me for thus tresspassing on your time, but if I could 
only believe that these lines would vindicate the cause of our 
state - I think that you would freely forgive - Will you not 
make an effort to see North Carolina as it is ? If I could only be 
instrumental in bringing about a better understanding between 
you and this state, I could feel that my life had not been spent in 
vain,- feel that I had accomplished that, of which the greatest 
might be proud- 

I know not whither came the courage to address the chief ruler 
of this nation. Alone in my room miles and miles from those I 
love , in the midst of strangers I sit night after night and think 
of my dear beloved country and of the misunderstanding between 
the government and the people, and tears course down my cheeks. 
Tonight suddenly I thought that I, little and unknown, tho' I am, 
I might perhaps reach your ears - and I have written just as I 
feel - written what I know is to be true and I am hoping that you 
will at least read these lines - 

The door is open for you to add fresh laurels to those that 
already adorn your brow - See - know, and trust the people make 
to yourself a name in the South and the homeless widows and 
orphans - the generous & brave men will"rise up and call you 
blessed." 

I am with unfeigned respect 
At L. Branson's 
Raleigh N.C. 

Permit me to ask that this be burned , lest it fall into the hands 
of your subordinates and the rebel girl be ridiculed. 



From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 2 PM. Dec 2 
1865. 

Raleigh E 1st 

The Prest 

It affords me great pleasure to inform you that the con- 
stitutional amendment was ratified by the House of Commons 
with but four dissenting voices and by the Senate with but two. 49 

49 The chief opposition in the senate was made by John M. Morehead and Dennis Ferebee. 
Hamilton, Reconstruction, 142-143. 



74 The North Carolina Historical Review 

This good result is greatly due to your timely Telegram. The 
struggle for the Senatorship has commenced and it may become 
necessary to again trouble you in settling the matter 

Very Truly Yours 



From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 10 45 P M. 
Dec 2 1865. 

Raleigh 9 30 P M Dec 2 

His Excellency 
A Johnson 

Twleve 12 Oclock Monday is the time fixed for the election 
of the U.S. Senators- Graham's friends have proposed to me 
that if his pardon can be obtained they will elect him & Holden 
or Bedford Brown 50 or any one I may name- I have said that 
without a public declaration from him of his unqualified approval 
of your plan of restoration & of his determination to give a 
cordial & hearty support to the National & State administration 
his pardon cannot be asked for- They say he is ready & willing 
to make such declarations- Again I have suggested that the 
election to be U S Senate of any man who had been in the Rebel 
Senate might weaken us & strengthen the radicals- Is this opin- 
ion correct? He & his friends say not- They have the power & 
will elect him unless I can have your authority for saying that 
it would be imprudent- Your reply will not, of course, be pub- 
lished or made known to only a few reliable persons hence it 
had better be directed to me rather than to Gov Holden, Truly 
yours 



From William W. Holden 

The following Telegram received at Washington 4-5 P M. Dec 
4 1865. 

Raleigh Dec. 4. 1865 

The Prest of the US 

Sir 

William A Graham has just been elected Senator by the fol- 
lowing vote. 

Graham one hundred Thirty Eight Boy den Seven (7) Dick 
Six (6) Brown one(l) 

50 Bedford Brown served in the United States Senate from December 9, 1829, until Novem- 
ber 16, 1840, when he resigned because he would not obey the instructions of the legislature 
of North Carolina, Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927, 744. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 75 

Another ballot was had when John Pool of Bertie lacked one 
vote of an Election. Adjourned for the day- Mr Pool would be 
in all respects acceptable 51 If I were a northern member of Con- 
gress I doubt whether I would consent to sit with any ex mem- 
ber of the So-Called Confederate Congress a proposition is pend- 
ing in the Senate that Thos L Clingman is entitled to the two 
year term. 52 Of course this will be voted down but it shows the 
feeling by which some of the members are actuated 

Very respy 



From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 4 20 P M. Dec 
4 1865. 

Raleigh " " 

The Prest US 

No answer to my telegram of Saturday night. Gov Holden 
has given you the result of today as to the electing Senators 

Graham leaves for Washington Tomorrow morning. His 
friends say he is confident that in an interview of Twenty min- 
utes he will obtain his pardon from you - Full returns not yet 
reed but it is supposed that about fifty five thousand votes were 
cast in all at the recent Gubernatorial Election 53 but on the Anti- 
Slavery and an[t]i Secession ordnances perhaps not more than 
twelve or thirteen thousand were cast of which about nine tenths 
were for ratification. A few counties gave majorities against 
ratification in which Counties the vote was almost unanimous 
against Holden. The members who have voted against ratifying 
the Constitutional amendment & those now claiming that Cling- 
man is Entitled to his seat are all anti Holden men- I would to 
God that I could report a more favorable State of affairs here 
than really exists 



51 John Pool (June 16, 1826-Aug. 16, 1884) was born near Elizabeth City, North Carolina; 
graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1847; practiced law in Elizabeth City; 
served as a member of the North Carolina senate in 1856, 1858, 1864, and 1865; was elected 
as Senator of the United States in 1865, but was not permitted to take his seat because the 
state had not been readmitted to the Union; upon the readmission of North Carolina to the 
Union, he was again elected Senator and served from July 4, 1868, to March 3, 1873. 
Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927, 1421. 

62 Thomas L. Clingman (July 27, 1812-Nov. 3, 1897) was appointed to the United States 
Senate on May 6, 1858; was reelected in 1861 and served to March 28, 1861, when he with- 
drew. On May 17, 1862, he was made a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. Clingman 
went to Washington in 1865 for the purpose of taking his seat under the claim of his 
election in 1861, but a committee appointed by the Senate ruled that he had no claim to 
his seat. Biographical Directory to the American Congress, 1774-1927, 824; Hamilton, Re- 
construction, 144. 

53 According to Benjamin S. Hedrick, Holden moved "Heaven and earth" to retain the 
governorship in 1865. Hamilton, Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, II, 675-676; Hamilton, 
Reconstruction, 145-146. 



76 The North Carolina Historical Review 

From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 4 15 PM. Dec 
4 1865 

Raleigh 
The Prest U S 

The petition for pardon of C.B. Harrison of Wake County had 
been approved by the atty Genl before he left Washington as it 
is important to him in a business point of view that he should 
receive his pardon as early as practicable Gov Holden therefore 
directs me to respectfully ask that his pardon be issued and 
forwarded by mail to the Govrs office 

Truly Yours 

From William W. Holden 

State of North-Carolina 
Executive Department 
Raleigh, N.C., Dec. 6, 1865. 

Hon. Andrew Johnson, President U. States. 

My dear Sir: I received your Message on Tuesday night about 
ten o'clock, and you may be sure I read it with interest and avid- 
ity. As long as I have been in public life I do not remember to 
have seen any document which I so entirely approve as I do this ; 
and I venture the assertion that it will command the hearty as- 
sent of a vast majority of the American people. The theory of 
the government, as maintained by the Fathers, and as settled 
for all time by the result of the late rebellion, is stated with 
clearness and accuracy. Your plan of restoration, which was the 
only feasible one under the circumstances, is explained, vindi- 
cated and commended to the Congress; yet after all, it is left 
to that body to say whether the states shall be restored and 
the work completed by the admission of the members from the 
insurgent states. The representatives of the insurgent states, 
having broken away from the Congress to engage in the rebellion, 
the question is how representatives from these states can again 
obtain seats, and this is a matter for the Congress itself. You 
have done your duty in so re-establishing [th]e machinery of 
self-government in these states [in orde]r to render them pre- 
sentable through their rep [re] sentatives to the common Con- 
gress. Whether they shall be admitted or excluded, and the work 
of restoration commenced de novo. Your skirts are clear. In a 
spirit of patriotism and out of intense love of the union, you have 
ventured a great deal ; and I regret that in some instances your 
liberality and self-sacrificing disposition have not been responded 
to as they should have been. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 77 

Allow me also to congratulate you on your foreign policy. We 
cannot afford to engage in war now, except in a clear case of in- 
sult to the national honor. We need at least ten years of profound 
peace. Believe me, Sir, a foreign war would develop elements in 
these Southern States little thought of by the superficial observer, 
and which might seriously embarrass and cloud the national 
arms. 

But I need not dwell on special points in the Message. I repeat, 
it is what I for the most part expected, and cannot fail to 
strengthen your hold on the confidence and affection of your 
countrymen. 

Dr. Powell will communicate to you much information in rela- 
tion to the condition of [th] ings in this State ; but there are some 
points to [wh]ich I wish to call your attention. 

The late election in this State was shaped by secession votes 
and the rebel debt. More than half of those who voted for Mr. 
Worth are original secessionists and Vance men. Still more or less 
unsubdued, and who are disposed to return to the Union only 
under their chosen leaders. Mr. Worth himself was in favor of 
continuing the rebel State government, and he fled with Vance 
on the approach of Gen. Sherman. Up to a period somewhat sub- 
sequent to the committal of Gov. Graham and other former 
union leaders to the Davis policy of "fighting it out." Mr. Worth 
had been a devoted union man. I appointed him Provisional 
Treasurer in the liberal spirit which characterized your policy, 
in the hope that I might thereby obliterate lines of difference and 
make our people a unit. Still I do not think that he would have 
been a candidate but for the influence of Ex-Governors Vance and 
Graham. Indeed , it is known that he had agreed to disentangle 
himself from the secessionist and retire , but another letter from 
Gov. Graham determined him to be a candidate.These are the 
facts of which I am still convinced. 

I regret to say that there is much of a rebellious [s] pirit still 
in this State. In this respect I admit I have [b]een deceived. In 
May and June last these rebellious [s]pirits would not have 
dared to show their heads even for the office of constable; but 
leniency has emboldened them, and the copperheads now shows 
his fangs. If these men had supreme power in this State the con- 
dition of the real Union men and of the freedmen would be ex- 
ceedingly disagreeable. They count themselves on their devotion 
to the Confederacy; they make that a test of fidelity, declaring 
that as they were true to Davis, so they will be to you. Yet every 
word that wounds true hearts, and every measure calculated to 
obstruct the work of restoration, proceeds from them. And 
strange to say, the true union men were so oppressed under Con- 
federate rule, and so cowed by the charge incessantly made that 
they were traitors, that they seem not to have entirely recovered 
their manhood, and hence it is that these malcontents are not 
denounced and exposed as they should be. 



78 The North Carolina Historical Review 

I communicate these convictions with regret. It may be that 
the policy of the government has been too lenient ; or it may be 
that I have seriously erred in the discharge of duty, or that I 
was not the proper person for Provisional Governor. You may 
recollect that when in Washington I sought an interview with 
you at your private residence. My purpose then was to ask you 
to appoint some one else to this position, but I perceived that 
you were pressed for time, as the moment for the review of troops 
had arrived, and I told you, in reply to a question, that I had 
nothing more to say. My friends subsequently urged me in the 
most earnest terms not to decline the appointment, and I did not, 
therefore, mention to you what I intended to say on the morning 
I made the visit referred to. I am ready and willing at any 
moment to retire from this position ; and if you have the shadow 
of a wish that I should do so, I pray you as a friend to let me 
know it. My chief wish is to be of benefit to my Afflicted State., 
and to see your administration successful. 

The election of Mr. Pool to the Senate is highly gratifying to 
the true union men of the State. His record is as good as it was 
possible it could be under the circumstances. He is a gentleman 
of very high character and marked ability ; and he had the cordial 
confidences of our friends in all parts of the State. In this connec- 
tion it may not be improper for me to say that I was offered a 
Senatorship "by authority" with Ex-Governor Graham, but I 
emphatically declared that I felt I owed it to you to remain where 
I am, and that in no event could I accept it. 

If this Provisional Government is to be continued it will be 
indispensible that the Courts of the State shall be put in full 
operation. Thefts, robberies, and murders are increasing, and 
the strong arms of law is indispensible to preserve life and 
property. Please give me instructions on this subject. I will have 
sufficient means to support a Provisional Government, and to put 
the entire machinery in full operation. A Supreme Court will be 
necessary as a Court of Appeals, and the Court elected by the 
Legislature might be appointed a Provisional Court. I am glad to 
be able to inform you that nearly all my Provisional appoint- 
ments have been confirmed by the Legislature. 

I have thus tared your patience at much length, but my situa- 
tion and the importance of the subjects must be my apology. Our 
friend Dr. Powell who has borne himself here with much discre- 
tion, and who has made friends by his visit, can give you all the 
details. 

Very Respectfully Yours, 






Letters to Andrew Johnson 79 

From William W.Holden 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 6 15 P M. 

Dec 9 1865. 
From Raleigh Dec 9 1865. 

The President of the U.S. 

Sir. Both houses of the General assembly have recinded their 
joint agreement to administer the oaths of office to Mr. Worth. 
The votes will only be counted and he will be declared Governor 
at the close of the Provisional Government 

Very respy 

Prov Gov 



From William W. Holden 

The following Telegram received at Washington 6 PM. 

Dec 9 1865. 
From Raleigh Dec 9 th 1865. 

His Excy the President of U S 

Sir, The Legislature of the State today passed the following 
resolution. Resolved the house of commons concurring that the 
committee appointed to count the votes polled for Governor in 
November last be instructed to make arrangements for the ad- 
ministration of the Oath of Office to the Governor elect at the 
same time the returns are opened and the votes counted. Is their 
authority to administer this oath. 54 I am not informed of the 
views of the General assembly on this subject, the oath proposed 
to be administered may be intended to be only prospective. What 
course shall I adopt? Please let me hear from you soon. Dr Powell 
left for Washington this morning. I have written you by him at 
length in relation to our affairs in this state 

Very resp'y &c 



From Mrs Ancrum Burr 

Wilmington No. Car 
Dec. 13 th 65. 
President Johnson. 

Dear Sir, Excuse this appeal to you again, but shear necessity 
obliges me to beg that you will give a few moments of your 

64 Before the adjournment of the legislature Jonathan Worth took the oath of office as 
governor of North Carolina. On December 23, William H. Seward notified Holden that by 
the direction of President Johnson he was relieved of his duties as provisional governor of 
North Carolina. He also notified Governor Worth of the termination of the provisional 
government and offered him the support of the United States government in his effort to 
bring peace and order. Hamilton, Reconstruction, 145-146. 



80 The North Carolina Historical Review 

precious time to my petition made some months ago, which I 
hear is now in your City, if you knew of my condition you would 
not delay longer, as,I have been reduced from true comforts, to 
actual want in every respect, so do dear President (Knowing 
what your family always was Gov- Dudley's) give me a hearing 
& assistance if possible With many prayers for your welfare I 
am very respectfully 

over 

Hoping to hear from you soon & getting some assistance I will 
wish you a happy Christmas. 



From Jonathan Worth 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 10 P M. 

Dec 28 1865. 
Raleigh N.C. " 28 
His Excellency 
A. Johnson 
President U.S. 

Sir : Is it desired that petitions for pardons under your proclama- 
tion of 29 May last be forwarded through my hands with my 
views indorsed as to merits or demerits of applicant? 



From J. T. Hough 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 10 10 P M. 

Jany 8th 1866 
From Newberne N C " " 1866 

Andrew Johnson 
President U S 

The sheriff is proceeding to collect the tax imposed by the 
late state convention of this State. Memorial with copy of the 
law was presented you by committee from this place Cannot you 
now interfere in our behalf? 

Chairman of Comm. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 81 

From J. T. Hough 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 2 PM. 

Jany 10 1866 
From Newberne N C Jany 10 1866 

Andrew Johnson 
Prest U. S. 

It was the Hon B. F. Moore who gave decision that the 
State Convention had no power to impose retrospective Taxes. 

Am informed that the atty General has given no decision? In- 
structions from Gov Worth to sheriff is that the Tax must & shall 
be collected. 

Myself with other business men have been arrested under 
Provisions of the law. Enforcement is causing great distress 
among us. Please answer immediately. 



From Jonathan Worth 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 6 45 P M. 

Jany 14 1866 
From Raleigh N C[Jan.]4 1866 

His Ex Andrew Johnson 
President U S 

We have no law authorizing the Attorney General to give 
opinions to executive officers He has given no opinion on the con- 
vention revenue law so far as I know. B.F. Moore a distinguished 
lawyer on application of State Treasurer gave an opinion that 
some of the provisions of the ordinance are unconstitutional. 
This opinion will not protect the Treasurer or sheriffs in stopping 
collections Our judges now qualified can protect tax payers by 
injunctions or tax payers can pay under protest to bring action 
in the civil courts, can relieve if the ordinance be unconstitu- 
tional 

Governor of N C 



From Andrew Miller 55 

Raleigh N.C. Jany 16/66 
Andrew Johnson Esq 
President U. States 
Washington, D.C. 

Sir 

I have taken the liberty to forward by mail of today to 
your address a short essay upon the subject of the "Currency 

66 Andrew Miller was postmaster in Raleigh. Hamilton, Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, 
II, 825n. 



82 The North Carolina Historical Review 

of the U. States"-Though published in 1861 the circulation of 
it to any considerable extent was prevented by the rebellion- 

If I have rightly understood your views upon that subject, 
mine will I think be joined in accordance with them - 

The storm that has been raised against you at the Capitol is 
being surcharged, and is I think about to burst upon their own 
heads, and beyond it I think may be seen the promise of a clear 
and calm political sunshine, in which I trust opportunity will 
yet be afforded you quietly to administer to the necessities and 
advancement of the great interests of the republic which have 
so long been over-ridden by fanaticism and madness,- amongst 
those interests none is of higher importance than our currency 

I have the honor to be sir 
with great regard & very resp-fully 
your servt &c 



To the President. 



From William W. Holden 

Raleigh, Jan. 25, 1866. 



Sir: Allow me to introduce my friend W.R. Richardson, 
Esq. of this City. Mr. Richardson was appointed Marshal from 
this State, but could not take the oath. He is a popular and worthy 
gentleman,and thoroughly loyal. 56 

Very Respectfully, 



From J. T. Hough 



New Bern N C 
Jany. 29 th 1866 

Hon Andrew Johnson 
President of the United States 

Dear Sir : 

Numerous petitions and letters are being forwarded to 
Congress. Praying for relief against the Tax ordnance of the 
State Convention of this state. An appeal was made by Council 
for Injunction but the Judges refuse to grant them. Property 
has been seized & advertised for sale to satisfy the Law. Persons 
are threatened with imprisonment for refusing to Comply In 
fact things are assuming a very bad shape here. Communications 
are being sent to the Radicals in the House at Washington which 
has a tendency to retard the great and glorious work you are en- 

89 This letter was enclosed with one from Richardson to President Johnson, dated March 
17, 1866. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson . 83 

gaged in. I write this as a firm supporter of all your acts & a 
warm advocate of your policy ;& hope that you may see some way 
to change this state of things- 
Very Respectfully 
Your obt Servt 



From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 6 10 P M. 

Feb. 5. 1866 

From Raleigh N. C. Feb. 5, 1866. 

The President of the U.S. 

I am directed by Governor Worth to most respectfully 
ask that the pardon of Ex- Gov Charles Manly may be granted 
He is over seventy years of age & comes within the thirteenth 
exception & none other. 

Please answer to Gov. Worth 



From R J Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, Feb. 20 1866 

From Raleigh " " 1866 

To the President 

US 

Your veto has sent a thrill of joy through every loyal heart 
in your native state and she from the grave of your father sends 
the greeting, 

Well done thou good and faithful servant 



From Jonathan Worth 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 9 P.M. 

March, 4, 1866 - 

From Raleigh N.C. March 4, 1866- 

His Excellency 
Andrew Johnson- 

Sir :- An engrossed bill "allowing persons of color to testify in 
all controversies at law or in equity where the right of persons of 
property of persons of color shall be put in issue, & also the pleas 
of the state where the violence fraud or injury alleged shall be 



84 The North Carolina Historical Review 

charged to have been done by, or to persons of color" has passed 
its second reading the Senate with this proviso :- 

"that this section shall not go into effect until Jurisdiction in 
matters relating to freedmen shall be fully committed to the 
courts of this state." Many of the friends of this bill believe this 
provision highly inexpedient .- It has been much debated and 
sustained by taking votes in both houses.- The advocates of the 
provision insist that it does not conflict with your views- 

I think it will be stricken out if you disapprove it- Will you 
express your approval or disapproval with permission to me to 
show your answer to the individual members of the general as- 
sembly but not for the press- The bill comes up for its final read- 
ing next Tuesday 

Governor of N.C. 



From William W. Holden 

The folowing Telegram received at Washington, 9, P.M. 

March 4, 1866. 
From Raleigh March 4, 1866. 

The President 

Your dispatch received. I took no oath of office either in 
Washington or Raleigh. No oath was tendered me but I took & 
subscribed to the amnesty oath as contained in your proclamation 
in order to become a voter. Copies of my proclamation & other 
papers were forwarded to the State Department. 

Very Respectfully 



From R. J. Powell 

The following Telegram received at Washington, 230 P.M. 

Mar 7 1866 
From Raleigh N. C "7 1866 

The President of the U.S. 

Solmon Pool brother loyal Senator elect was recom- 
mended for Internal Revenue officer this fourth (4) District by 
Holden & Worth after which at suggestion members Legislature 
from this District about half of whom are secessionists the 
name of another was sent on. 57 These secessionists oppose Pool 
because brother of Senator and as professor in University in- 
stilled loyal sentiments into his pupils during rebellion. Pool 
should be appointed 



57 In 1867 Solmon Pool left the University of North Carolina to accept a position in the 
Internal Revenue Service. Hamilton, Reconstruction, 625. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 85 

From Mrs. A. P. Devreaux Miller 

March 16th [18] 66 
President Johnson 

Sir 

Please send Mrs. Ball a free pardon she will certainly die 
if kept from her blind paralytic husband & helpless family while 
her girls must be ruined if left without a mothers eye 58 

She is nothing to me I never knew her, but you are much - 
the daughter of one, whose name must be familiar to you (A P. 
Devereaux) the wife of another (H W Miller), boy & lad I 
remember you so well & the Pine grove back of my Fathers house 
where, when I could escape home supervision I would go to watch 
you boys my husband being one of the number play Marbles I 
can not but hope for the sake of those early days you will not be 
severe but even grant the pardon tho it may seem from the evi- 
dence that she is guilty tho I believe she was fully convinced it 
was her life, or the negro's I also believe if she is punished for 
defending her home no woman living away from protection will 
be safe 

But it is not for her sake I beg it, it is for yours, tho not by 
southern votes still you are emphatically our President, sl "South- 
ern Democrat" & she will return to mix with just the class I 
would wish to see you beloved & upheld by, the hard handed 
honest Democracy of Warren & Granville Let her go free & able 
to say it was by no other help than that of "our President'' 

I have taken no council as to this not a soul knows of my writ- 
ing I was moved by a strangers suffering & led to it from com- 
passion added to a strong desire to see you persue a course which 
would make you & the old Democracy thro you beloved & popular 
It looks like presumption but it is not, for woman tho I be I have 
a right to love a cause with which I have been long identified & 
if I am but a woman I can see that the salvation of my country 
depends on your power to make it as embodied in you beloved. 

I do not want my letter hand over to an official to be answered 
I shall know the result by Mrs. Ball fate had I the money I should 
have begged in person Any N Carolinian will tell you I am what 
I represent myself to be I should have said the widdow [sic] of 
H. W. Miller but I so dislike the term widow for I have been alone 
more than three years & no one is responsible for this perhaps 
you may call a most unwarrantable piece of impertinence 

If so inclined, consider the motive & excuse Sir 

Yours most 

respectfully 
Mrs. H.W. Miller 

Raleigh N C 

68 Governor Worth appealed to General Ruger and endeavored to convince him that Mrs. 
Ishman Ball was not guilty of manslaughter. Hamilton, Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, 
I, 508. 



86 The North Carolina Historical Review 

From W. R. Richardson 

Raleigh North Carolina 
March 17. 1866. 
To His Excellency 
Andrew Johnson 
President U S 

Sir: 

Influence by the advice of friends I am induced to make 
this application to your Excellency, first premising a few facts 
which I respectfully present to your consideration. 

Upon the inauguration of a provisional government for the 
State, you were pleased to appoint me United States Marshal 
for the district of North Carolina, Being unable to take con- 
scientiously the oath prescribed by Congress, I was compelled to 
decline the commission you had tendered me,This inability aris- 
ing from my having been a candidate for a seat in our House 
of Commons, opposing the policy of Govr. Vance and his re- 
election and endorsing the course of Gov. Holden and advocating 
his election, will nevertheless I hope in the opinion of your Ex- 
cellency prove my loyalty at that time, In the canvass I urged 
a call of a convention for the purpose of restoring the State to the 
Union and was only defeated by Seventeen votes. 

That my attachment to the United States Government is un- 
abated and of my zealous support of the policy of your Excellency 
in restoring the rebellious States to their proper federal relations 
I can confidently refer to the evidence herewith submitted and to 
every prominent Union man in our State- Gov. Holden appointed 
me his private Secretary which position I held until he was re- 
lieved, Since that time, owing to my loosing nearly everything 
during the rebellion I have barely been able to support my family 
consisting of a wife and three children, I am young (thirty years 
old) able willing and accustomed to work, and if I can obtain 
through the kindness of your Excellency some post or position 
in the Territories, or in foreign parts which I can fill without 
being called upon to take the "test oath" I am confident of per- 
forming the duties to the satisfaction of my friends, 

I should have made this application in person when in Wash- 
ington some weeks ago had my friend Hon John Pool been in the 
City- Hon E. G. Reade, R. P. Dick and Hon John Pool will give 
any recommendation in my case- 
Hoping that your efforts in behalf of our Union will be suc- 
cessful 

I am your obt. Servant 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 87 

From David L. Swain 59 

University of North Carolina 
Chapel Hill, 31st March 1866 
Dear Sir, 

I have just read your veto message returning the Civil 
Rights Bill to the Senate and concur with you fully and heartily 
in all the positions assumed. I can assure you most confidentially 
that the measures of no administration in my day, General Jack- 
son, inclusive, have been more universally acceptable to the great 
body of the people of North Carolina, and so they would pro- 
nounce most extraordinarily, if they considered themselves at 
liberty to speak at home when they are not permitted to be heard 
at Washington. 

The enclosed newspaper contains what I do not remember to 
have seen elsewhere, a condensed historical sketch of American 
Rebellions. It is the pen of a lady, who is one of my nearest neigh- 
bors and most esteemed friends. It has occurred to me that if 
placed in the hands of some one of your friends in Congress, it 
might suggest a new line of defence for your policy of reconstruc- 
tion, and therefore I send it. 

Yours very truly 
President Johnson 



[To be continued'] 



69 David Lowry Swain (Jan. 4, 1801- Aug. 27, 1868) was born in Buncombe County, North 
Carolina. Throughout the Civil War he was a constant adviser of Governor Vance. He was 
made a special commissioner when General Sherman was approaching Raleigh and arranged 
for favorable terms for the surrender of the state. In May he was called to Washington as 
an adviser to President Johnson about reconstruction, and during the remainder of his 
life he was constantly consulted by the President. Dictionary of American Biography, XVIII, 
230-231. 



BOOK REVIEWS 

Raleigh and the British Empire. By David B. Quinn. (New York: The Mac- 
millan Company. 1949. Pp. xiii, 284. $2.00.) 

In this small volume in The Teach Yourself History Library 
series Professor Quinn of University College, Swansea, Wales, 
has presented a well-balanced, incisive, scholarly, and highly 
readable account of Sir Walter Raleigh's role in the founding of 
the British empire. The author, one of the leading authorities in 
this field, is cognizant of the fact that imperialism is always an 
expression of social forces and not primarily of individual enter- 
prise. Accordingly, he interprets Raleigh as a representative per- 
sonality, an originating rather than a dominating one, in the 
history of England's first overseas expansion. 

In the first two chapters, the author traces Raleigh's early 
career, from his birth at Hayes Barton, near Budleigh, about 
1552, until his rise to power and influence as a court favorite of 
Queen Elizabeth some twenty-five years later. Chapter Two, 
"New Worlds," gives a clear and concise account of the rivalry 
between Spain and England in their struggle for power and 
traces the connection between Raleigh and his older half-brother, 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, from whom he derived his initial interest 
in colonization. At first Raleigh was "a very junior partner in 
an imperfectly thought-out enterprise," but the overseas world 
gradually came to fill a larger part of his thoughts and to inspire 
him to action on his own account, especially after Gilbert's death 
in 1583. Doubtless much of Raleigh's interest in colonies must 
have been inspired by those two great propagandists for coloni- 
zation, the two Richard Hakluyts. 

Chapters Three and Four, "The English Approach to America" 
and "Lost Colonies," will be of particular interest to students of 
North Carolina history. They relate to "the spring and summer 
of Raleigh's career," 1583-1592, when he made his unsuccessful 
efforts to plant colonies at Roanoke Island — the expeditions of 
Amadas and Barlow in 1584, the Lane Colony, 1585-1586, and 
finally the "Lost Colony," 1587-1591. These chapters are excellent 
in their clear-cut analysis of the problems confronting the leaders 
and the settlers : the lack of a good harbor and other geographic 
handicaps, the enmity or outright hostility of the natives, friction 

[88] 



Book Reviews 89 

between the leaders, inadequate supplies, and the disappoint- 
ments and frustrations of the settlers themselves. In the Lane 
Colony, the settlers were to work together as paid servants of the 
investors, under the commander whom Raleigh appointed. As 
governor, Lane was virtually a dictator who, in his own words, 
"set down a disclipine which was severely executed." With the 
failure of the Lane Colony, Raleigh changed his whole plan. 
Henceforth, the colonists would get 500 acres on the strength of 
undertaking to go, and more in proportion to their investment; 
they would bring out their families to work the farms and build 
up a permanent community. Organized as a company enjoying 
rights of self-government under their own officials, the John 
White Colony was begun under a rather hopeful arrangement. 
The story of its failure need not be retold here. 

Professor Quinn shows clearly that Raleigh was not an idealist, 
pouring out his money in pursuit of a dream of empire for the 
glory of England. Raleigh, himself, never invested more than a 
moderate proportion of his wealth in the enterprise. He believed 
that colonization must pay its way and "he was never willing to 
gamble too much or for too long in attempting to bring it to a 
successful issue." 

One of the best chapters deals with the Irish Plantation in 
Munster. The author is of the opinion that too little emphasis 
has been placed on the various Irish schemes in the history of 
British colonization because "from the middle of the sixteenth 
century the main field for English overseas land settlement was 
not America but Ireland." 

The last three chapters are concerned with Raleigh's two 
voyages to "the beautiful empire of Guiana" and with the "re- 
founding of Virginia," at the time when Raleigh was a prisoner 
in the Tower of London. 

The author's appraisal of Raleigh, the man, may best be 
quoted : 

He was energetic, hard-working, practical, reasonably quick 
and decisive in action, a disciplinarian. He took care of men's 
health, and was very successful, or lucky, in avoiding sickness 
among them. On the other hand, he was inclined to grouse and 
blame his superiors. He knew how to organize a garrison and 
conduct exploring expeditions, but he had little idea of building 
up the commercial and agricultural activities on which the 



90 The North Carolina Historical Review 

permanence of the colony would depend. He treated the problem 
of relationships with the natives as primarily a military one . . . 
He could see his way clearly enough to the end of the first stage 
in the establishment of a colony — the building of a strong, forti- 
fied settlement on a suitable harbour . . . The idea of a diversified 
community, building up family life on the basis of individual and 
communal enterprise, was beyond him. 

In spite of these shortcomings, Raleigh was one of the great 
figures in the colonial movement of his day and he has received 
fair treatment at the hands of Professor Quinn. It is a splendid 
book. 

Hugh T. Lefler. 

The University of North Carolina, 

Chapel Hill, N. C. 



The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943. By David Leroy 
Corbitt. (Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History. 1950. Pp. 
xix, 323. Maps, appendices.) 

Mr. Corbitt, who is head of the Division of Publications, State 
Department of Archives and History, has labored long and care- 
fully to produce a reference volume of value to genealogists, his- 
torians, county officials, and agencies of the state and federal 
governments. 

A brief introduction sketches the early settlement of North 
Carolina, the creation of early precincts which were changed to 
counties in 1739, the controversy between the royal governors 
and the general assembly over the power to create new counties, 
and the vexing problems of boundary disputes and locating 
county seats. The author states that North Carolina has had 116 
precincts or counties. Seven were in the region west of the moun- 
tains ceded to the federal government in 1790 and the names of 
several counties disappeared because of division, abolition, or a 
change of name. Today there are 100 counties. 

The main portion (about two-thirds) of the book, arranged 
alphabetically by counties or precincts, presents for each the 
date of formation, the county or counties from which formed, 
origin of name, location, the 1940 area and population, and per- 
tinent quotations from the act of formation and subsequent acts 
changing the boundaries. These county sketches constitute the 
most valuable and lengthy section of the work. 



Book Reviews 91 

Appendix I contains reports of surveyors and commissioners 
to establish boundary lines for several counties, which were filed 
in the office of the Secretary of State at Raleigh. 

Appendix II consists of twelve maps and a chart, all drawn by 
L. Polk Denmark of Raleigh from material contained in the main 
portion of the book. The maps show the approximate county di- 
visions in 1790 within what is now Tennessee and the approxi- 
mate county divisions in North Carolina in 1700, 1740, 1760, 
1775, 1780, 1800, 1840, 1850, 1870, 1900, and 1912. The chart 
ingeniously shows by vertical and horizontal lines the date of 
formation of each county and the county or counties from which 
it was formed. On the chart is a list of the counties and the dates 
of their formation. The date chosen is "that of Assembly which 
authorized formation of County." 

An index completes the volume. 

Mr. Corbitt's volume is a useful work executed with thorough- 
ness, care, accuracy, and scholarship. It is accurately and pro- 
fusely documented. The main portion of the book devoted to the 
individual counties in alphabetical order has 969 footnote cita- 
tions, most of them to the public and private laws. 

The author, as others before him, found it difficult and in some 
cases impossible to determine definitely the dates of formation. 
Is the proper date "that of Assembly which authorized formation 
of County,'' used by the author on the chart? Or is it the actual 
date when the act was passed ? Or is it the date when the act be- 
came effective? In nine cases — Chatham, Halifax, Hertford, 
Mecklenburg, Person, Pitt, Surry, Wake, and Wilkes — the author 
lists on the chart the date "of Assembly" and notes in the sketch 
of the county that the effective date of the law was the following 
year. For Robeson the author uses 1787 in the chart and sketch 
which is correct for date of passage and effectiveness but not for 
the meeting of the Assembly in 1786. There is an inconsistency 
or mistake in the case of Jones. The chart lists 1778 ; the sketch 
1779. The date on the chart seems incorrect because the session 
"of Assembly which authorized formation of County" met wholly 
in 1779. The first session of the Assembly met in 1778 but the 
third session which formed Jones County met wholly in 1779. 



92 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The reviewer prefers the effective date of the law for the forma- 
tion of a county. 

Mr. Corbitt's work immediately takes rank as the standard 
reference work in its field. A. R. Newsome. 

The University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill, N. C. 



Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, 2 in one. By Griffith J. McRee. 
(New York: Peter Smith. 1949. Pp. vi, 570; iv, 605. $10.00.) 

This is one of the so-called "Micro-offset Books/' According to 
the publisher, these are published in editions of 100 to 250 copies. 
The titles in this series consist largely of reprints of out-of-print 
and scarce books required by those doing research work, and for 
which only a very limited sale is possible. Original copies are 
practically unobtainable at any price ; or if obtainable, are usually 
too expensive for most libraries and individuals to afford them. 

A method of reprinting has here been found which makes 
available books that otherwise might vanish permanently from 
public use. They are reproduced at moderate price. 

This edition, of course, contains all the information of the 
original — Iredell's English birth and background, his migration 
to America and his life at Edenton, his study of law under Samuel 
Johnston and his practice of the legal profession, his entering 
public office, his courtship and marriage. Very valuable materials 
on the revolutionary and postwar periods are made available 
in newly-printed form. This is especially true of social and politi- 
cal history of Iredell's time. 

The needs for reprints of old, outstanding titles for use of 
research scholars is obvious. The two original volumes on Iredell 
are here published in one volume of very fine print, with several 
pages of the original printed on one page of the new. It is un- 
fortunate that the print is so small that it will discourage most 
readers except students of research. The great tragedy of this 
worthy project, however, is that it is again published without an 
index. Fortunately Mrs. Helen Harrison at the library of the 
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is now working on a 
thorough, usable index. It is hoped that the publisher of this 
newly printed work will also publish copies of the index, and 
thus make it available to all who buy or use this valuable work. 



Book Reviews 93 

This reprint is especially valuable because of the subject it 
treats. The late Professor William K. Boyd of Duke University, 
writing of North Carolina literature before the Civil War, said : 

The biography par excellence was Griffith J. McRee's "Life 
and Times of James Iredell" (2 vols., 1857, 1858) , really a collec- 
tion of letters invaluable for an understanding of social and polit- 
ical affairs in the later eighteenth century, prized by all investi- 
gators of national as well as of state history. 

M. L. Skaggs. 

Greensboro College, 

Greensboro, N. C. 



The Natural Bent: The Memoirs of Dr. Paul B. Barringer. (Chapel Hill: 
The University of North Carolina Press. 1949. Pp. vi, 280. $3.50.) 

Dr. Paul B. Barringer, long active in southern medical and 
educational circles, was persuaded by his daughter Anna to dic- 
tate some "recollections for his grandchildren,'' and this book 
is the result. Put together by his daughter, with some additional 
material but with very little editing of the basic manuscript, it is 
a rambling, repetitious narrative, anecdotal, occasionally point- 
less. Yet these characteristics of style are not offensive in a book 
of this type ; on the contrary, they impart the flavor of personal 
conversation appropriate to the subject. 

The son of Rufus Barringer, who became a brigadier general 
in the Confederate army, and of Eugenia Morrison, daughter of 
the founder of Davidson College, Paul Barringer was born at 
Concord, North Carolina, in 1857. The family place, Cottage 
Home, was a moderate-sized plantation near Concord where 
young Paul had an opportunity to observe the handicrafts and 
agricultural techniques of a largely self-contained community. 

The first and more interesting half of the book contains vivid 
pictures of everyday life under the Confederacy, detailed with a 
precision rather startling when one remembers that the author 
was only eight when the war ended. Dr. Barringer's flair for 
observation and analysis of mechanical detail enabled him to 
describe the exact steps in such processes as the clearing of virgin 
land and the manufacture of home-made cartridges, candles, 
cloth, and bricks with a minuteness which makes them fascinat- 
ing. An example of this is the system of brickmaking devised 



94 The North Carolina Historical Review 

during the war ; not only is the making of the bricks described, 
but also the method of constructing the brickmaking machinery, 
a simple type yet one which could be readily managed by old men 
and children. The accounts of the canal, railroad, and stage- 
coach transportation of the time — with all of which the boy was 
familiar as a result of his frequent visits to various relatives in 
North Carolina and Virginia — are done with the same precise 
observation. 

These memoirs, a child' s-eye view of the war, do not of course 
contain any information of military or political significance. The 
author candidly admits that he remembers little of his famous 
uncle, Stonewall Jackson. There are a few anecdotes involving 
famous personalities, however, among them General Rufus Bar- 
ringer's meeting with Lincoln, the former as a Confederate 
prisoner of war, and the disappointingly brief account of Jeffer- 
son Davis's stay at Cottage Home on his flight south shortly 
after Appomattox. 

After the war young Paul's formal schooling began at the 
famous Bingham School, then located near Mebane, North Caro- 
lina. Considerable space is devoted to the curriculum, the amuse- 
ments of the boys, and the rather primitive living arrangements. 
Less detailed but still of considerable interest are his recollec- 
tions of student life and customs at the University of Virginia, 
where he completed his bachelor's work and the one-year medical 
course. 

After his graduation he spent a year in the clinics of the city 
of New York, followed by a year's medical study in Vienna. The 
memoirs, an account only of his formative years, close with his 
return to the United States at the age of twenty-four. A brief 
postscript, provided by his daughter, summarizes the activities 
and achievements of his later life, as chairman of the faculty of 
the University of Virginia, where he founded the university 
hospital, as president of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and 
as a writer on medical subjects. 

The chief value of the book is in the earlier sections with their 
graphic account of many facets of a way of life which has now 
disappeared. Howard Braverman. 

1620 St. Johns Place, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Book Reviews 95 

Public Addresses, Letters, and Papers of Joseph Melville Broughton, Gov- 
ernor of North Carolina, 1941-1945. Compiled and edited by David Leroy 
Corbitt with a biographical sketch by Emery B. Denny. (Raleigh: Council 
of State, State of North Carolina. 1950. Pp. xxi, 718. Illustrated. Index.) 

Joseph Melville Broughton was governor of North Carolina 
during World War II. He believed that "Government in a democ- 
racy exercises its true and noblest function when it seeks to pro- 
mote the welfare of all the people." This volume, therefore, re- 
flecting the problems, tone, and accomplishments of his admin- 
istration, is important in the history of North Carolina and to 
those concerned with the state's significant contributions to the 
nation. 

This work follows the general pattern used in the publication 
of the letters and papers of Governors Bickett, Morrison, Mc- 
Lean, Gardner, and Hoey. Much of the material was written by 
Governor Broughton and all of it issued from his office. Some 
thirty illustrations of the governor and Mrs. Broughton, im- 
portant persons, and historic events enliven and add value to the 
book. 

The biographical sketch by Associate Justice Emery B. Denny 
is brief and restrained. As a lawyer, manager of Governor 
Broughton's campaign, and warm personal friend, he was con- 
tent to let the record with its many solid achievements speak for 
itself. Writing shortly before Broughton's untimely death on 
March 6, 1949, he described him as a "great North Carolinian, 
one who served his State in time of national peril, with manifest 
ability and patriotic devotion." And he added that the governor's 
election to the United States Senate in 1948 "is a finer testimonial 
of the esteem in which he is held by the people and the confidence 
they have in him than any praise he could be given here." 

One of the most valuable parts of this work is the table of ap- 
pointments to the various state boards and commissions. This 
includes the names and addresses of the appointees, dates of ap- 
pointment and expiration, and citations to laws authorizing such 
appointments. The table fills some fifty-five pages and includes 
special judges, the State Highway and Public Works Commission, 
the State Board of Health, the Advisory Budget Commission, 
trustees for the various teachers' colleges, the State Board of 



96 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Pharmacy, the State Board of Barber Examiners, and other pub- 
lic agencies and institutions. 

Unfortunately, this volume throws little light on those papers 
and letters which could not be included because of limitations of 
space. It is not a critical study, and undoubtedly political op- 
ponents and disappointed office seekers could supply information 
and documents to complete the picture. Furthermore, Governor 
Broughton usually spoke without a manuscript and many of his 
addresses are fragmentary or based on press reports. The index 
of thirty-seven pages is not only useful but attests the care with 
which the volume was prepared. 

Editor Corbitt, the State Department of Archives and History, 
and North Carolina are to be congratulated on adding the record 
of another constructive administration to the many fine historical 
publications already issued by the state. If other states would 
publish the record to the world, perhaps more men of the char- 
acter and ability of Joseph Melville Broughton would be elected 
to the high office of governor. 

David A. Lockmiller. 

University of Chattanooga, 
Chattanooga, Tennessee. 



Life and Works of Allen Jay Maxwell. By Raymond C. Maxwell. (Privately 
printed. 1949. Pp. xiv, 213.) 

This book is the laudable effort of a son to perpetuate the mem- 
ory of a worthy father. Allen Jay Maxwell first appeared in the 
public life of North Carolina as a newspaper editor. His election 
as clerk of the state senate in 1899 proved to be the beginning 
of nearly half a century of service to the state. His first appoint- 
ment as a full time state official was as clerk of the Corporation 
Commission in 1910. From that time until his death, December 9, 
1946, he was actively associated with every development in the 
operation and expansion of the state's fiscal machinery. By study 
and close application to his duties he became a recognized au- 
thority in this field. During Governor Bickett's administration he 
began the practice of blocking out changes in fiscal policies, co- 
operating with the General Assembly in passing suitable bills, 
and in turn putting these policies into effect as an administrative 



Book Reviews 97 

official. He continued these activities under six other governors 
in succession, becoming best known for his work as Commissioner 
of Revenue, 1929-1942. 

About half of the volume is devoted to a sketch of Allen Jay 
Maxwell's life. This is based primarily on excerpts from news- 
papers in support of Maxwell's various proposals in tax programs 
and his efforts to gain the Democratic nomination for governor 
in 1932 and 1940. For continuity the account depends on the 
author's own memory of events and an occasional reference to 
some story related to him by his father. The second half of the 
book is a series of speeches and papers by Allen Jay Maxwell. 
The main themes in these are the promotion of a greater pride 
in the state among its people and the orderly development of 
public services through sound fiscal policies and wise administra- 
tion. No doubt the most useful section of the book to historians 
is the last paper, "Some Aspects of Economic Development in 
North Carolina since 1900." This is a summarization of extensive 
studies directed by Allen Jay Maxwell as head of the North Caro- 
lina Department of Tax Research during the last four years of 
his life. 

Paul Murray. 

East Carolina Teachers College, 
Greenville, N. C. 



John Bell of Tennessee. By Joseph Howard Parks. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana 
State University Press. 1950. Pp. viii, 435. $5.00.) 

To his Felix Grundy, the first volume of the Southern Biogra- 
phy Series, Professor Parks has now added John Bell of Tennes- 
see. The studies afford an account of two of the leading pre-Civil 
War Tennessee politicians, one a Democrat, the other the most 
significant Whig. In a real sense, the second biography resumes 
and overlaps a political history of Tennessee where the first one 
left off. Meticulously depicted is the state's shift from support 
of Andrew Jackson to an advocacy (in middle and west Tennes- 
see) of the Whig party; and state and national political vicissi- 
tudes are interwoven in a masterly fashion. Emphasized, of 
course, are Bell's actions in the Tennessee legislature and in va- 
rious capacities in Washington, and, more briefly, his private 
interests and activities. His whole career is traced effectively. 



98 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The book indicates a close study of widely scattered historical 
materials, objectivity, scrutiny for detail, and workmanlike or- 
ganization. The style is good. A magnificient "Critical Essay on 
Authorities" rounds out this major publication in the field of 
southern political history. It is the first full-length, connected ap- 
praisal of Bell's career to be printed. 

Most often Bell has been described and recognized as a com- 
promiser, mainly concerned with maintenance of the Union and 
support of the politico-economic program earlier advocated by 
Henry Clay. One puts down the present biography, however, 
with a strong feeling that Bell was one of the most avid political 
opportunists in American history. Professor Parks has most cer- 
tainly and obviously not set about to tear to pieces the reputation 
of his subject, but he does so to some extent, at least in the mind 
of this reviewer. Bell was continuously involved in some intrigue 
or machination, whether supporting or opposing Andrew Jack- 
son, James K. Polk, J. C. ("Slim Jim") Jones, or other state or 
national politicians. He did not hesitate to question the activities 
of the leaders of his own party. He was most careful to compose 
even his private letters with a view toward publication and public 
reception. His use of newspapers proves again that many ante- 
bellum editors made news rather than reported it. His ambition 
and caution were overpowering, and influenced his every public 
act. 

In the last twenty years of Bell's career (1840-1861), there 
was need for careful consideration of his actions. Voters moved 
in a lightning-like manner from party to party, mainly over 
questions of slavery and economics. From a two-party system, 
the South proceeded to political turmoil and chaos. Passing across 
the stage were Whigs, Democrats, Know-Nothings, States' Rights 
Democrats, Union Democrats, and many others. New leaders 
skyrocketed to fame; many of them fizzled after dazzling their 
followers for short periods. The South, which Bell courted as- 
siduously along with the North, knew its mind only on the ques- 
tion of slavery. Through all this Bell charted his course. In Ten- 
nessee he was faced with the peculiar situation of a border state 
made up of three recognizable and outspoken sections; and he 
managed to remain in office! Without doubt he possessed ad- 



Book Reviews 99 

mirable qualities, capacity for thought and work, dignity, per- 
sonal honesty, and love for the Union. More than that, he was 
the master politician, at least in Tennessee. His participation in 
the presidential campaign of 1860, however, showed that he had 
lost his ability to judge both men and the times. In that ignoble 
affair, so similar in its basic respects to the presidential cam- 
paign of 1948, he was an opportunist personified. The border 
states had more success in 1948 than in 1860. In 1948 we found 
ourselves, for the only time in our history, with a president and 
a vice-president from a border state. Bell tried unsuccessfully to 
accomplish half as much in 1860. 

W. T. Jordan. 

Florida State University, 
Tallahassee, Florida. 






John C. Calhoun: American Portrait. By Margaret L. Coit. (Boston: Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company. 1950. Pp. ix, 593, illustrations, notes, bibliography, 
index.) 

With the instincts of the true biographer and artist Miss Coit 
exhibits in intimate detail Calhoun's actions and personality. 
She creates a vivid portrait of the man. Her delineation is ninety 
per cent convincing because that proportion of what she writes 
is based on a thorough examination of every Calhoun letter and 
every other bit of biographical data. Unfortunately ten per cent 
of her exposition is unconvincing because it is based on indirect 
or even dubious sources. The author carries this practice so far 
that one might suspect a less dutiful person of wishing to be too 
intimate with a character assumed by some biographers to be less 
colorful and more abstract than Miss Coit is willing to admit. 

In many instances the author assumes familiarity with her 
subject by recounting the experiences of third persons uncon- 
nected with Calhoun. Activities at Yale College during the time 
he was resident there, for example, are vividly reconstructed on 
the basis of reliable sources, but Miss Coit is dangerously specu- 
lative and even fictional in her assumptions concerning the de- 
gree of Calhoun's participation in these activities. Scant evidence 
is advanced to support the suggestion that the South Carolinian 
while a law student at Litchfield participated in the gayeties de- 
scribed in this book. The "riot of scent and sight, color and 



100 The North Carolina Historical Review 

sound" characteristic of Charleston when Calhoun visited it 
represent the impressions of Frederick Marryat, Harriet Mar- 
tineau, and other persons with greater feelings for such things 
than Calhoun is proved to have had. All the refulgent overflow- 
ings of nature with which the book abounds sound more like Miss 
Coit's improvisions than the perceptions of Calhoun. The account 
of a Calhoun picnic is based on a general discription of such 
events by Carolina Howard Gilman. Ben Robertson's testimony 
concerning the eating habits of the South Carolina up-country 
in the twentieth century may be justification for the assertion 
that the Calhoun family one hundred years earlier consumed 
"tart brown cider and sun-mellowed peaches." Eating habits 
change slowly in the rural South. But most certainly the Cal- 
houns did not, as did the Robertsons, consume sorghum. Accord- 
ing to the Encyclopedia Americana that sugary substance was 
not introduced into the United States until 1857. 

Despite these aberrations Miss Coit has done what few aca- 
demic biographers are willing or able to do. She has made her 
study of Calhoun lively and intelligent. She is primarily interest- 
ed in the man, his actions and motivations, rather than in the ex- 
ternals of his life. To have portrayed such externals would have 
been easy and logical in the case of the great South Carolinian. 
The classical representation of him is that of a cast-iron man 
with a blueprint leading to ultimates over which he was not pas- 
sionately concerned. To friendly interpreters he is the vindicator 
of the Truth as embedded in the Constitution. To hostile inter- 
preters he is the creator of evil ideas standing in the way of the 
liberal nationalism responsible for that nearest approach to 
earthly perfection known as the United States of America. 

Miss Coit contends that Calhoun was just as truly a creature 
of flesh and blood as one of Shakespeare's heroes or villians. She 
triumphantly sustains this thesis by interpreting industriously 
collected materials with a lively imagination. In the several 
stages of his career Calhoun is represented as behaving as other 
children, students, lawyers, husbands, fathers, and politicians 
might have done under similar conditions. He was human enough 
to be diverted into an indiscreet love affair, to woo fervently, and 
to possess an interesting mother-in-law problem. Like millions 
of other husbands and wives John and Floride Calhoun did not 



Book Reviews 101 

know exactly how to get on with each other. Calhoun is revealed 
as desirious to be President as politicians with less austere 
reputation. 

I do not mean to say that Miss Coit, in the ironic manner of the 
New Biography, tries to reduce Calhoun to the level or the com- 
monplace or the sordid. She credits him with many heroic virtues. 
At the same time she does not neglect ideas, integrating his per- 
sonal traits with the development. of his statesmanship. Interest- 
ingly does she expound the theory that "basically Calhoun was at 
once a nationalist and a sectionalist from the beginning to the 
end of his career." With unparalled clarity she explains how he 
devised the doctrines of Nullification and the Concurrent Ma- 
jority as means of protecting a minority section against the ag- 
gressions of centralizing liberals demanding universal democ- 
racy, the abolition of slavery, and the supremacy of the pluto- 
crats. She leads the reader to accept the conclusion that Calhoun's 
political treatises were "perhaps the most powerful defense of 
minority rights in a democracy ever written." 

Miss Coit learned from Benjamin B. Kendrick, her teacher in 
a North Carolina college, that she is not obligated to apologize 
for Calhoun's regionalism. She realizes that it has a rightful use 
today. She uses it to justify opposition to an American national 
standardization as tyrannical in the middle of the twentieth 
century as it was a hundred years earlier. It is a pity Miss Coit 
is not as courageous in defending Calhoun's championship of 
slavery. She supplements an able description of that institution 
with censorship of Calhoun for defending it because she believes 
it was doomed for economic reasons. Doubtless she would have 
revised her opinions had she been familiar with the writings of 
Lewis C. Gray and others who hold to the belief that slavery 
would not have died of internal weaknesses. 

Francis B. Simkins. 

Louisiana State University, 
Baton Rouge, La. 



Slavery in Alabama. By James Benson Sellers. (University, Alabama: The 
University of Alabama Press. 1950. Pp. v, 426. $4.50.) 

What was the actual nature of the South's peculiar institution? 
Historians today, though they disguise their moral judgments 



102 The North Carolina Historical Review 

more carefully, still disagree almost as widely as ever over the 
essential quality of human bondage as America knew it. The 
assiduous researches of Ulrich B. Phillips cleared away much of 
the undergrowth which obscured a clear view of slavery, though 
he has been charged in some quarters with a tendency to palliate 
and justify. To know the institution, "wie es eigentlich gewesen 
ist" requires a closer look. 

It is in this sense that Professor Sellers' study, taken together 
with the work of Professor Charles S. Sydnor and others, is of 
prime importance. For he has subjected slavery as found in a 
restricted area to a thorough dissection and searching examina- 
tion. It is apparent that his evidence has been gleaned through 
a painstaking combing of practically all of the relevant con- 
temporary sources, including those unwieldy, neglected, and high- 
ly important records to be found in the dusty vaults of county 
courthouses. His findings — embracing the routine of plantation 
life, the slave trade, town slaves, the legal status of slaves, crimes 
and punishments, runaways, the churches and the slave, the de- 
fense of slavery, and the free Negro — are set out in a straight- 
forward manner and in a surprisingly readable style, considering 
the nature of his materials. 

The author generally refrains from value judgments, but 
where he does commit himself, he lines up with those who would 
hold that slavery was not so bad as it has sometimes been painted. 
"In some ways," he says (p. 80), "the Negro had the best of it. 
His master furnished all the necessities of life and shouldered 
all the worries. But genuine pride in the plantation, in its prod- 
ucts, and in its people, could be shared by slave and master." 
There is perhaps some relation between this and the fact that the 
author has drawn most of his impressions of plantation life from 
the tiny percentage of very large estates. He has also neglected a 
few phases of the subject which might well have been discussed 
— the domestic arrangements of the slaves, the circumstances and 
extent of miscegenation, and relations between slaves and various 
elements of the white population. 

The above should detract not at all from the able and scrupu- 
lous manner in which he has presented the available evidence, 
whether incriminating or beatifying. Perhaps the strongest im- 



Book Reviews 103 

pression which emerges from the study is of the sense of in- 
security which the Negro population bred in the master race, 
which resulted in increasingly harsh police regulations. It is 
also apparent from the large number of runaways that the slaves 
by no means reacted to the situation with uniform docility. 

The University of Alabama Press is to be congratulated on an 
extremely attractive volume, with readable typography, well- 
chosen illustrations, and a handsome binding. A small number of 
the inevitable minor errors have, of course, escaped the eyes of 
proof readers. An exceptionally fine example of the cuts of run- 
aways which filled southern newspapers in slavery days appears 
appropriately opposite the title page. 

Charles Sellers, Jr. 

The University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill, N. C. 



Migration Into East Texas, 1835-1860: A Study from the United States 
Census. By Barnes F. Lathrop. (Austin: The Texas State Historical As- 
sociation. 1949. Pp. x, 114. Preface, maps, figures, tables, appendix, and 
index. $3.50 cloth, $2.00 paper-bound.) 

This is a significant study based largely on the manuscript 
schedules of the federal census for 1850 and 1860, written by a 
member of the history staff at the University of Texas. Professor 
Lathrop attempts to determine the sources and annual rates of 
population movement into East Texas (which he defines as that 
part of Texas east of the Trinity River) by an analysis of a large 
sample of the migration into the region. He also endeavors to 
establish certain characteristics of migrant families into the area 
in order to present "a substantially correct statistical picture of 
the anatomy of interstate migration. ,, Making use of manuscript 
records that are much more inclusive than the printed census 
reports, and that have been but little used by the serious his- 
torian, this work points the way to new vistas for a better under- 
standing of the westward movement. 

The book includes as an introduction to the author's research 
and findings a valuable essay on the first hundred years of the 
United States Census. While this chapter makes the study some- 
what disjointed, it clarifies Professor Lathrop's rather technical 



104 The North Carolina Historical Review 

undertaking and contains a description and analysis of the prog- 
ress of the American Census, as well as a discussion of the po- 
tential uses by the student of the manuscript census returns. 

Professor Lathrop's study is an experiment in what he de- 
scribes as the "child-ladder method," a procedure that makes use 
of the dates and birthplaces of children listed in the census 
schedules to indicate family movement. While this method allows 
detection of only about fifty per cent of the total migration into 
the nineteen counties studied and while it misses some interstate 
moves (since all parents were not considerate enough of the fu- 
ture historian to have a child born at every location), certain 
compensations that the author makes insure reasonably accurate 
results. Some of the conclusions are arresting. Alabama, Tennes- 
see, and Mississippi furnished over half of the 135,000 migrants 
estimated by Professor Lathrop to have come into East Texas 
during the period 1834-1860, while Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, 
and Missouri added another thirty-five per cent. The magnet that 
drew people into East Texas, as one could guess, was the hope of 
economic betterment. 

Migration Into East Texas is essentially a statistical study. 
While the author writes in a clear and direct manner, the fre- 
quent use of tables and figures, necessarily included in a work of 
this kind, does not make for readability. This is primarily a work 
for the specialist, but its importance should not be underesti- 
mated, for it will be of interest not only to those who are students 
of Texas history, but, because Professor Lathrop has carefully 
integrated his findings into the over-all picture of the expansion 
of the Old South, also to all who are alert to new developments 
in southern historiography. Professor Lathrop has demonstrated 
that the results of intensive study of large sources for a relatively 
small unit can be used to throw light on a regional or even a na- 
tional development, though he modestly admits that a definite 
statement of sources and rates of antebellum migration to Texas 
awaits the investigation of more counties. 

Dewey W. Grantham, Jr. 

5050 Ezzard Road, N.W., 

Atlanta, Georgia. 



Book Reviews 105 

Rustics in Rebellion. A Yankee Reporter on the Road to Richmond 1861- 
1865. By George Alfred Townsend. With an Introduction by Lida Mayo. 
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1950. Pp. xx, 292. 
$3.50.) 

Readers who, like the reviewer, have struggled with a broken- 
backed copy of George Alfred Townsend's Campaigns of a Non- 
Cambatant, with pages missing and paper too old and brittle for 
rebinding, will rejoice over a reprinting by the University of 
North Carolina Press. The twelve-page introduction by Lida 
Mayo is a valuable addition as it presents an account of the life 
of this Civil War correspondent with which many historical 
scholars may not be too familiar. However, the change of title 
to Rustics in Rebellion does not appeal to this reviewer as an 
improvement ; on the contrary, it might well prove repugnant to 
Virginians. 

Anyone familiar with the original edition will promptly miss 
several chapters: the introductory chapter, in which Townsend 
philosophized on his career as a reporter, two chapters on his ex- 
periences of over a year in England and on the continent in the 
midst of the war, a chapter on Washington after the conflict, and 
a final grewsome chapter on executions which he had witnessed. 
As a source for the Civil War the volume benefits from the omis- 
sions, as it stands now as a continuous war narrative. 

The book is in no sense a history of the war, though it describes 
some battles minutely and vividly, of which the Battle of Five 
Forks (chapter XXV) is the most striking illustration. Indeed, 
it covers only the initial advance of the Army of the Potomac, a 
sort of practice march toward Manassas; that portion of the 
Peninsular campaign which embraced the Seven Days' Battles, 
for it was May, 1862, before his second newspaper assignment 
sent him to join McClellan's army but long enough for him to 
contract the Chickahominy fever ; and the brief period of the war 
remaining after his return from Europe in 1865 when he resumed 
his reporting with the Battle of Five Forks. 

The value of the book lies in the fact that it is concerned with 
people and life, with weary, hungry, suffering privates, with 
dying and burying, with runaway "contrabands," with Union 
skulkers, and with the life of the Virginians behind the lines. 
Though many of the great commanders of the war move through 



106 The North Carolina Historical Review 

his pages, the people who engage Townsend's attention are the 
plain citizens and the common soldiers. The general objectivity 
and maturity of the young reporter — only twenty when he first 
set off for the battlefield — is striking. This masterpiece of Civil 
War reporting has properly not been allowed to lapse out of print. 

Ella Lonn. 

2435 N. Charles St., 
Baltimore 18, Md. 



Agricultural Progress in the Cotton Belt since 1920. By John Leonard 
Fulmer. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1950. Pp. xiv, 
236. $3.50.) 

People who are accustomed to thinking of the South as a 
poverty-stricken region enmeshed in the one-crop system will be 
surprised by this book. They will also be encouraged. In a com- 
petent and scholarly analysis Dr. Fulmer, associate professor of 
rural economics at the University of Virginia, has revealed that 
striking changes in southern agriculture have occurred during 
the past three decades. A gradual decline in the relative im- 
portance of cotton and cottonseed has been accompanied by a 
marked increase in the emphasis given to tobacco, truck crops, 
peanuts, pecans, hogs, cattle and calves, dairy products, chickens, 
and eggs. Better land use and the advent of mechanization have 
greatly stepped up productivity per worker. The tractor has be- 
gun to displace the sharecropper. The growing cities of the South 
have absorbed excess rural population, opened up new markets 
for agricultural products, and even provided part-time employ- 
ment for farmers. Farm income has risen sharply. Diversifica- 
tion, which agricultural leaders have preached for generations, 
seems nearer reality than ever before. 

The genuine progress represented by these developments sug- 
gests still more impressive advances to come. But the author is 
fully aware of the problems yet to be solved. The tractor and the 
mechanical cotton picker pose questions of their own. Farm-to- 
city migrants are mainly young persons while city-to-farm mi- 
grants are commonly older people, thus causing an age distribu- 
tion unfavorable to alert and progressive agriculture. Per capita 
farm income (including government payments) in the cotton belt 
lags far behind that of the rest of the country. Professor Fulmer 



Book Reviews 107 

warns that crop surpluses may touch off the disastrous sequence 
of oversupply, low prices, reduced farm income and purchasing 
power, reduced demand for supplies, reduced industrial output, 
unemployment, and a back-to-the-land movement. He strongly 
recommends continuing and improving the cotton control and 
soil conservation programs, together with a plan of basic agricul- 
tural training for farm labor and basic industrial training for 
those farm persons who migrate to the cities. 

In this study the ten-state cotton belt is divided into three 
subregions with distinctive characteristics: Eastern (North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee), Delta 
(Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas), and Oklahoma-Texas. Fifty- 
five tables and twenty-six charts indicate that the author's ap- 
proach to his subject is primarily statistical. Though he modestly 
disclaims infallibility for his figures, readers may accept with 
confidence the accuracy of his tabulations and the validity of his 
conclusions. The footnotes, selected bibliography, and index are 
satisfactory, and the editing, checking, and proofreading have 
been excellent. The book is a worth-while addition to the many 
significant titles in regional self-examination published by the 
University of North Carolina Press. 

Stuart Noblin. 

North Carolina State College, 
Raleigh, N. C. 



The Colonial Craftsman. By Carl Bridenbaugh. (New York: New York 
University Press. 1950. Pp. xii, 214. Illustrations and index. $4.25.) 

Something new has been added to the studies of colonial Ameri- 
ca. For many years, Dr. Bridenbaugh says by way of preface, 
the need had been felt for a study of the colonial craftsman but 
none had been made. He set to work, therefore, gathering data 
about the artisan and his place in the colonial community. When 
an invitation came to him to deliver the Anson G. Phelps Lectures 
on Early American History at New York University he brought 
together his findings on that subject. 

The resulting volume, attractively bound and printed, is il- 
lustrated with seventeen engravings of the eighteenth century. 
Village craftsmen of the North and the rural South are treated 
separately. The urban craftsman is treated more extensively and 



108 The North Carolina Historical Review 

finally a chapter is devoted to the craftsman as a citizen. The 
seemingly endless list of trades and crafts treated in this study 
is quite impressive. The mass of information gathered on each 
of them makes fascinating reading. All the way from Boston's 
lady shoemaker to New Jersey's "obstinate . . . mechanicks" who 
served in the Assembly much to the dissatisfaction of their more 
aristocratic fellow townsmen, the volume presents a series of in- 
teresting vignettes. 

This work will not appeal to the average "antique" collector — 
that is not its purpose — but to one interested in the life and work 
and the contributions to America made by the colonial craftsmen, 
it will be a treasure. 

Notes indicating the sources of Dr. Bridenbaugh's information 
are grouped by chapters at the end of the volume, an arrange- 
ment designed to please the reader who is disturbed by the fre- 
quent appearance of footnotes and to exhaust the reader who is 
curious about sources. The index, while far from being all- 
inclusive, is generally adequate. 

Joye E. Jordan. 

State Department of Archives and History, 
Raleigh, N. C. 



John Wesley Jarvis, American Painter, 1780-1840. With a Checklist of His 
Work. By Harold E. Dickson. (New York: The New York Historical So- 
ciety. 1949. Pp. xxii, 476. Illustrations and index. $10.00.) 

Aside from the fact that this volume is a most interesting and 
carefully done "life and times" study of one of early America's 
hitherto little-known artists, it has many other points to recom- 
mend it. For one thing it may well stand as a model to future 
would-be biographers of apparently obscure persons. Through 
diligent digging in manuscript collections and careful sifting of 
secondary sources Dr. Dickson, a member of the faculty in the 
Department of Architecture at The Pennsylvania State College, 
has made John Wesley Jarvis come to life not only as an artist 
but as a personality. 

To make the study more complete, a chronology of Jarvis's life 
is included along with an annotated checklist of his works. Dr. 
Dickson's search for Jarvis' works has been most exhaustive and 
his catalogue of them almost trebles the number previously 



Book Reviews 109 

knowm The checklist of more than 400 works includes 67 un- 
located portraits, while it excludes five which had previously been 
attributed to him. 

The classified bibliography locates all manuscripts material as 
well as some of the rarer printed volumes. More than a 
hundred illustrations are included. 

The volume's index should delight the reader in search of 
specific information. It is a threefold index. First is an index of 
owners of Jarvis's works contained in the checklist, next an index 
of works of art referred to in the text including the footnotes, 
and finally a general index. 

And by no means to be disregarded is the fact that the volume 
is a handsome work of the publisher's art. It is bound in a shade 
of orange and stamped with gold. The type, Caslon Old Style, 
suits the subject and period with which the volume deals. The 
New York Historical Society is to be congratulated on this vol- 
ume so attractive and strikingly different from the publications 
of many another historical society. 

William S. Powell. 

State Department of Archives and History, 
Raleigh, N. C. 



HISTORICAL NEWS 

Drs. J. L. Godfrey, Cecil Johnson, F. W. Klingberg, Fletcher 
M. Green, L. C. MacKinney, R. K. Murdock, and J. C. Sitterson 
of the University of North Carolina and Dr. Stuart Noblin of 
North Carolina State College attended the annual meeting of the 
Southern Historical Association in Atlanta, November 9-11. Dr. 
MacKinney was chairman of the session on medieval history. 

Mr. D. A. Smiley, a graduate student of the University of Wis- 
consin, became an instructor in history at Wake Forest College 
for the fall quarter. 

Mr. Wayland Jones, an instructor in history at Wake Forest 
College, is doing part-time graduate work at Duke University. 

Dr. Preston W. Edsall of North Carolina State College attended 
the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association 
in Chapel Hill and Durham November 17-18. 

Mr. Walter L. Seegers of North Carolina State College attended 
the annual meeting of the Economic History Association at 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., September 15-16. 

Mr. Kenneth D. Raab of North Carolina State College is a 
member of the program committee for the annual meeting of 
the Mississippi Valley Historical Association to be held in Cin- 
cinnati in the spring. 

Mr. W. F. Burton and Mr. D. L. Corbitt of the State Depart- 
ment of Archives and History attended the annual meeting of the 
Society of American Archivists in Madison, Wisconsin, October 
8-9. Mr. Corbitt served as chairman of the membership committee 
for the past year. Mr. Burton was appointed on the nominating 
committee for the current year. 

Mr. D. L. Corbitt, head of the Division of Publications of the 
State Department of Archives and History, delivered in Franklin 

[110] 



Historical News 111 

on October 3 the annual address of the Macon County Historical 
Society. On November 17 Mr. Corbitt met with a group of citizens 
in Greenville looking toward organizing a Pitt County Historical 
Society. At the meeting Mr. David J. Whichard was elected tem- 
porary chairman and Mrs. Robert Lee Humber was elected 
temporary secretary. 

The Division of Archives and Manuscripts of the Department 
of Archives and History has installed a laminating shop which 
includes a Barrow laminating machine and facilities for neutral- 
izing the acidity in papers. With this new equipment the Depart- 
ment has begun an expanded program of repair and restoration. 

Yadkin County celebrated its centennial during the week end- 
ing October 8. A pageant in twelve scenes with more than 300 
characters was given nightly. The story started with the Lost 
Colony and ended with the Yadkin County centennial. The cele- 
bration began with a county-wide religious service and ended 
with an old-fashioned square dance. 

The Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williams- 
burg, Virginia, has announced that a limited number of Grants- 
in-aid of Research to individual writers or scholars who are 
carrying on studies in the field of American history prior to the 
year 1815 will be available in the spring of 1951. Ordinarily 
grants will not exceed $1,000. Candidates must file their applica- 
tions not later than March 15, 1951, and announcements of 
awards will be made on May 15, 1951. 

On October 2 approximately 250 persons from North Carolina 
and Virginia assembled at St. John's Episcopal Church at Wil- 
liamsboro to study plans for the restoration of that colonial house 
of worship. Bishop E. A. Penick gave the principal address and 
announced a donation from the Lawrence Holt fund. The restora- 
tion cost is estimated at $25,000. 

The North Carolina Society of County Historians made a tour 
of Durham and Orange counties on October 8. The group, con- 
sisting of persons from Orange, Durham, Wake, Franklin, Har- 



112 The North Carolina Historical Review 

nett, Anson, Guilford, and Lee counties, met at the courthouse 
in Durham where Mr. R. 0. Everett made an address. The group 
visited the grave of B. S. Durham, for whom Durham County 
and the City of Durham were named; the courthouse at Hills- 
boro; St. Matthew's Episcopal Church; the place where the 
Regulators were executed; the Presbyterian Church and ceme- 
tery; the Colonial Inn; and the Bennett house where General 
Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to General William T. Sherman. 
At the end of the tour Mr. and Mrs. R. 0. Everett entertained 
the group at their home. 

The Maude Moore Latham Tryon Palace Collection, a collection 
of furniture and furnishings made by Mrs. J. E. Latham of 
Greensboro for Tryon's Palace when it is restored, was placed on 
exhibit at the Greensboro Historical Museum, October 12. The 
collection will remain on exhibit until Tryon's Palace is ready to 
receive it. 

The Historical Society of North Carolina held its fall meeting 
in Winston-Salem on October 20. At the afternoon meeting Dr. 
James W. Patton of Chapel Hill read a paper, "Dr. R. D. W. 
Connor, an Appreciation," and Dr. Douglas L. Rights of Winston- 
Salem read a paper, "Adelaide Lisetta Fries." At the evening 
session Dr. Rosser H. Taylor of Cullowhee, acting president, read 
a paper, "Carolina Cross Roads." At the business meeting Dr. 
C. C. Pearson of Wake Forest College was elected president, Miss 
Mary L. Thornton of Chapel Hill, vice president, and Dr. Frontis 
W. Johnston of Davidson College secretary-treasurer. 

The Library of Congress on October 29 announced the com- 
pletion of the joint project of the Library of Congress and the 
University of North Carolina of the microfilming of the official 
papers of the 48 states. Films were made of the legislative, 
judicial, and executive records of the states, territories, and 
colonial possessions, and the collection contains some 2,500,000 
pages or the equivalent of more than 8,300 books of 300 pages 
each. A guide to the contents has been prepared and is available 
at the Library for $5 per copy. Positive copies of any reel of the 
film can be procured for $15 per 100-foot reel. 



Historical News 113 

The Josephus Daniels papers, which were presented to the 
Library of Congress in 1948 by his sons, Josephus Daniels, Jr., 
Worth Bagley Daniels, Jonathan Worth Daniels, and Frank A. 
Daniels, contain approximately 500,000 pieces. They include many 
series of correspondence, mainly unbound, covering roughly the 
period from 1877 to 1948. There is, however, relatively little 
material for the early period. Daniels was editor and publisher of 
The News and Observer from 1894 to 1948, Secretary of the Navy 
from 1913 to 1921, and Ambassador to Mexico from 1933 to 1942. 
These papers, although not completely arranged as they event- 
ually will be, are and will be available for scholarly investigation. 

The Archeological Society of North Carolina held its annual 
meeting in Raleigh on November 30 and the following papers 
were read: Mr. J. C. Harrington of the National Park Service, 
"Recent Developments in American Archeology" ; Mr. Barton 
Wright of the University of Arizona, "The Restoration Program 
at Town Creek Indian Village"; and Mr. Ernest Lewis of the 
University of North Carolina, "The Sara Indians and the Eastern 
Sioux." At the business meeting Dr. Christopher Crittenden 
was re-elected president, Mr. O. L. Giersch of Charlotte was 
elected vice president, Mr. Harry T. Davis of Raleigh was re- 
elected secretary-treasurer, and Mr. Joffre R. Coe of Chapel Hill 
was re-elected editor. 

The North Carolina State Art Society held its twenty-fourth 
annual session in Raleigh November 29-30. At a get-together 
luncheon the first day remarks were made on art developments 
throughout the state and a business meeting was held. At the 
evening meeting awards, gifts, and recognitions were made, after 
which Mr. Eugen Weisz of the Corcoran School of Art, Washing- 
ton, D. C, gave an address, illustrated with colored slides, en- 
titled "Modern Masters of Other Days." After this session a 
reception and preview of the Jacques Busbee Memorial Collection 
of Jugtown Pottery were held in the State Art Gallery. At the 
business meeting the following officers were elected for the en- 
suing year: president, Mrs. Katherine Pendleton Arrington of 
Warrenton; vice-presidents, Mrs. Jacques Busbee of Steeds, Mrs. 
J. H. B. Moore of Greenville, and Mr. John Allcott of Chapel Hill ; 



114 The North Carolina Historical Review 

treasurer, Mrs. James H. Cordon of Raleigh ; and executive secre- 
tary, Miss Lucy Cherry Crisp of Raleigh. Members elected to the 
executive committee are as follows: Dr. Robert Lee Humber of 
Greenville, chairman; Dr. Clarence Poe, Mrs. Isabelle Bowen 
Henderson, Mrs. Matthew Nowicki, and Mr. Albert Hoskins, all 
of Raleigh. 

The North Carolina Society for the Preservation of Antiquities 
held its tenth annual meeting in Raleigh on November 30. At the 
morning meeting Mr. George R. Ross, director of the Department 
of Conservation and Development, made a report on the restora- 
tion of Tryon's Palace. Mr. Sam Weems, superintendent of the 
Blue Ridge Parkway, reported on "Restoration in Western North 
Carolina National Parks," and Mr. Sam Selden of Chapel Hill and 
others gave a skit, "Lost Colony." At the luncheon meeting Mr. 
J. C. Harrington of the National Park Service made an address, 
"Ruins, Relics, Documents, and Tradition Tell the Story of Fort 
Raleigh." At the evening meeting Miss Martha Langston, direc- 
tor, and Mrs. Ernest L. Ives and Mrs. William D. Campbell, 
sponsors, all of Southern Pines, presented a skit, "The Old Shaw 
House," and Dr. Archibald Henderson presented the Charles A. 
Cannon awards, after which there was a reception for members 
and guest. At the business meeting the following officers were 
elected for the ensuing year: Mrs. Charles A. Cannon of Concord, 
president; Mrs. Inglis Fletcher of Edenton, vice president; and 
Mrs. Ernest A. Branch of Raleigh secretary-treasurer. Vice 
presidents for the congressional districts are: Mr. Theodore 
Meekins of Manteo, Mrs. Katherine P. Arrington of Warrenton, 
Mrs. R. N. Duffy of New Bern, Mrs. Charles Lee Smith of Ral- 
eigh, Mrs. Gordon Gray of Chapel Hill, Mrs. John A. Kellenberger 
of Greensboro, Mrs. Henry J. MacMillan of Wilmington, Mr. 
George H. Maurice of Eagle Springs, Mrs. Henkel Spillman of 
Statesville, Mrs. 0. Max Gardner of Shelby, Mr. Ralph Erskine 
of Tryon, and Mrs. Robert T. Cecil of Asheville. The board of 
directors who were elected are as follows: Mrs. J. E. Latham of 
Greensboro, Miss Gertrude S. Carraway of New Bern, Mrs. James 
A. Gray of Winston-Salem, Mrs. T. R. Rankin of Mount Gilead, 
and Dr. Archibald Henderson of Chapel Hill. 



Historical News 115 

The North Carolina Folklore Society held its thirty-ninth ses- 
sion in Raleigh on December 1. Dr. Thomas B. Noble of Indian- 
apolis, Indiana, delivered an address entitled "Navaho Indians: 
Their Life and Land," and Mrs. Thomas B. Noble gave an exhibit 
of Southwestern Indian Portrait Studies. Miss Clare Leighton of 
Durham showed an exhibit of woodcut illustrations for The Frank 
C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore. At the business 
meeting the following officers were elected: Mr. Cratis D. Wil- 
liams of Boone, president ; Mr. Bascom L. Lunsf ord of Leicester, 
first vice-president ; Miss Isabelle Busbee of Raleigh, second vice- 
president; and Dr. A. P. Hudson of Chapel Hill, secretary- 
treasurer. 

The North Carolina Society of County Historians held its an- 
nual session in Raleigh on December 1. After several reports on 
activities during the year Mr. William Whitaker, author of a 
history of Alamance County, made a talk on his experiences in 
writing his book and Mr. George R. Ross made a brief talk on 
North Carolina State Parks. Mr. Willis G. Briggs of Raleigh was 
re-elected president and Dr. W. P. Jacocks of Chapel Hill was 
elected vice-president. 

The State Literary and Historical Association held its fiftieth 
annual session in Raleigh on December 1. At the morning meeting 
Mr. Richard Walser of Raleigh read a paper, "The North Carolina 
Sojourn of the First American Novelist"; Mr. William Burlie 
Brown of Chapel Hill read a paper, "The State Literary and His- 
torical Association at the half Century Mark" ; and Miss Dorothy 
Lloyd Gilbert of Guilford College gave a review of North Carolina 
books of the year. At the evening meeting Mr. George M. Stevens 
of Asheville gave the presidential address, Mrs. Thomas Jeffer- 
son Byerly, governor of the Society of Mayflower Descendants 
in North Carolina, announced the Mayflower Society award to Mr. 
Max Steele of Chapel Hill for his book, Debby, voted the best 
book published during the year by a resident North Carolinian, 
and Dr. Archibald Rutledge of McClellansville, S. C, delivered an 
address, "Old Plantation Days." A reception to members and 
guests of the association followed. At a business meeting Dr. 
Robert Lee Humber of Greenville was elected president, Mrs. 



116 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Inglis Fletcher of Edenton, Dr. H. S. Stroup of Wake Forest, and 
Dr. Douglas L. Rights of Winston-Salem were elected vice-presi- 
dents, and Dr. Christopher Crittenden of Raleigh was re-elected 
secretary-treasurer. The nominating committee for the next year 
consists of Dr. Stuart Noblin, Dean B. F. Brown, Miss Daisy B. 
Waitt, and Mr. Willis G. Briggs, all of Raleigh, and Dr. James W. 
Patton of Chapel Hill. 

Dr. Christopher Crittenden has addressed the following groups 
on various phases of the program of the State Department of 
Archives and History: September 8, a book club in Shelby; Oc- 
tober 6, a group of citizens of Charlotte; October 15, at Olivia, 
Harnett County, a group at the unveiling of a historical marker 
for old Barbecue Church; October 18, a group in Wilmington; 
October 26, a group in Hertford ; October 27, the meeting of the 
Polk County Historical Society at which a history of the county 
by Mrs. Sadie Smathers Patton of Hendersonville was presented 
to the county; November 2, the Hertford County Historical So- 
ciety at Winton; November 3, a group in Windsor; November 
3, a group in Williamston; November 6, the North Carolina 
Recreation Conference in Charlotte; November 10, a group in 
Sanford; November 15, the Johnston-Pettigrew Chapter, United 
Daughters of the Confederacy, Raleigh; November 16, a group 
in Warrenton ; December 2, the Society of Mayflower Descendants 
in North Carolina meeting in Winston-Salem; December 7, the 
Kiwanis Club, Lexington; December 8, a group in Salisbury; 
December 13, a group in Oxford ; December 14, a group in Aber- 
deen ; and December 15, a group in Monroe. 

The Roanoke Island Historical Association held a meeting in 
Raleigh on October 13. Mr. Bill Sharpe was elected president, 
succeeding Mrs. Charles A. Cannon. 



The North Carolina 
Historical Review 



Volume XXVIII APRIL, 1951 Number 2 

THE PROFESSIONAL THEATER IN WILMINGTON,* 

1858-1870 

By Donald J. Rulfs 

The first notice of a theater for professional entertainment 
in Wilmington apparently was an advertisement by a certain 
Robinson, manager of a traveling company, in the State Gazette 
of North Carolina (New Bern) for November 29, 1787, to the 
effect that he had arranged for an "elegant theatre" in Wilming- 
ton and that he had planned for the company to stay there one 
month. 1 Thereafter this theater, which was doubtless an impro- 
vised stage in one of the public halls, was occasionally used by 
traveling companies until the end of the century, 2 when, at an 
undetermined date, a theater was constructed on the lower floor 
of Innes Academy. This was a free school located on the north- 
east corner of Third and Princess streets and was erected with 
funds bequeathed in 1759 by Colonel James Innes. After its 
completion, arrangements were made between the trustees of 
the Academy and the Thalian Association, well-known amateur 
theatrical group, for the Thalians to rent the theater on per- 
petual lease, although it was continually sublet to professional 
entertainers. 3 

Beginning with the turn of the century, the history of pro- 
fessional theatrical activity in Wilmington remains obscure until 
about 1840 as a result of the limited number of extant news- 
paper files. After 1840, however, the files are more complete, 



* This is the first in a series of three articles dealing with the professional theater in 
Wilmington, 1858-1930. Editor. 

1 Archibald Henderson, North Carolina: the Old North State and tlie New (Chicago: Lewis, 
1941) I, 640. 

2 Richard G. Walser, "Strolling Players in North Carolina 1768-1788," Carolina Play-Book, X 
(December, 1937), 108-109; Thomas H. Wetmore, Jr., The Literary and Cultural Develop- 
ment of Ante-Bellum Wilmington, North Carolina (unpublished Duke University A. M. 
thesis, 1940) 81-88; Henderson, North Carolina, I, 644-646. 

3 James G. Burr, The Thalian Association of Wilmington, N. C, with Sketches of Many of 
Its Members (Wilmington: J. A. Engelhard, 1871), 3-6. 

[119 3 



120 The North Carolina Historical Review 

and a recent investigation indicates that between 1840 and 1855 
the old theater in Innes Academy was frequently used for pro- 
fessional plays, concerts, panoramas, dance groups, minstrels, 
and variety entertainments. 4 Since the theater apparently had a 
seating capacity of only 300 to 400, 5 many entertainments were 
also given at Mozart Hall, located above stores at 20 South Front 
Street, and at Masonic Hall, 124 Market Street upstairs. 6 

It was not until the opening of the new Thalian Hall on Tues- 
day, October 12, 1858, therefore, that the professional legitimate 
drama of the sort that had been flourishing in such centers as 
Richmond, Charleston, and New Orleans began in Wilmington., 
In the early 1850's the town authorities had decided upon the 
erection of a new city hall on the site of the old Innes Academy 
and had purchased the property, the Thalian Association receiv- 
ing one-half of the purchase money with the understanding that 
the Association, of which Donald MacRae was president, should 
use the funds to furnish and equip a theater in the east wing 
of the new building. 7 Consequently the state legislature of 1854- 
1855 passed an act authorizing the commissioners of Wilmington 
to issue bonds of the town not to exceed $50,000 for the construc- 
tion of the combined city hall and theater. 8 The old academy was 
demolished in the fall of 1855, and the cornerstone of the new 
structure, which still stands, was laid on December 27 of the 
same year. 9 

The original plans for the building, of Corinthian design, were 
drawn by a certain Trimble of New York, and James F. Post 
of Wilmington was superintendent of construction. 10 The ex- 
terior dimensions of the wing containing the theater measured 
110 feet by 60 feet; the stage 42 feet by 57 feet; the auditorium 
45 feet by 57 feet, with a ceiling of 54 feet. 11 The theater had a 
seating capacity of 950 12 and was lighted with 188 gas burners. 13 



* Wetmore, Ante-Bellum Wilmington, 90-107. Mr. Wetmore closes his study in December, 
1859, but does not mention the opening of the new theater or the nature of the first season, 
1858-1859. 

5 Wilmington Daily Journal, January 19, 1854. 

"Frank D. Smaw, Jr., Smaiv's Wilmington Directory 1866-1867 (Wilmington: Frank P. 
Smaw, Jr., 1867), 111, 117. According to a street; diagram in the directory, 20 South Front 
was on the east side. 

7 Burr, TItalian Association, 48-49. 

» Daily Journal, October 12, 1858. 

* Daily Journal, October 12. 1858. 
w Daily Journal, October 12, 1858. 
u Daily Journal, October 12, 1858. 

"Wilmington Messenger's Encampment Edition. July. 1889. p. 3. 
w Daily Journal, October 12, 1858. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 121 

The Thalian Association used the new theater for several pro- 
ductions, but it soon found itself in such a poor financial con- 
dition that it made arrangements with the town authorities to 
the effect that ". . . if they would assume the responsibilities 
of the Association, all of their right, title, and interest in that 
part of the building used for theatrical purposes, would be sur- 
rendered." 14 The agreement was made, the Association was dis- 
solved, and the theater, which was thereafter alternately called 
Thalian Hall and The Wilmington Theater, became the property 
of the town. 

Upon the grand opening of the new theater on the evening 
of October 12, 1858, the ceremonies began with the national 
overture by the orchestra under the direction of H. Eckhardt, 
leader of the Charleston Theater orchestra; then the curtain 
rose on members of the Thalian Association, and James G. Burr 
delivered an address of welcome, followed by a history of the 
Association. The national anthem was then sung by the theatrical 
company. Lessee and manager for the season was G. F. Marchant, 
manager of the Charleston Theater, who delayed the opening of 
the Charleston season until November 15 in order that his com- 
pany might play in Wilmington for one month. 15 Since the 
Charleston Theater consistently offered only the highest quality 
of entertainment, the new theater in Wilmington was fortunate 
to have as its first tenants the Marchant Company. In fact, ten 
years later, as will be indicated below, there was still remem- 
brance in the newspapers of the excellence of these performers. 

The piece selected for the opening night was John Tobias 
The Honey Moon, a romantic play in blank verse reminiscent of 
The Taming of the Shrew and other Elizabethan plays. The 
Honey Moon had been first produced in London at Drury Lane 
on January 31, 1805, and had remained a stock favorite in Eng- 
land and the United States for over fifty years. The Duke of 
Aranza was played by Marcus Elmore, Rolando by a certain 
Penistan, and Juiliana by Mrs. Mary Gladstane. At the end of 
the play there was a dance, "La Espanola," by Miss Adelaide 
Raymond; then, in accordance with a long standing custom in 



14 Burr, Thalian Association, 50. 

15 W. Stanley Hoole, The Ante-Bellum Charleston Theatre (Tuscaloosa: University of 
Alabama Press, 1946), 149. 



122 The North Carolina Historical Review 

the English and American theater, an afterpiece in the form of 
James Robinson Planche's farce The Loan of a Lover completed 
the evening's activities. 

In the lengthy unsigned review which appeared the next day 
in the Daily Journal, edited by James Fulton and A. L. Price, 
all performers were praised, and we are told that the audience 
"comprised a large portion of the most intelligent people of our 
town." The review concludes with an appeal for the support of 
the company: 

Now, finally, the Company appears to be a good Company. 
They all evidently wish to please. They can and will present a 
pleasant and intellectual evening's entertainment, and really, 
even in the interests of morality and refinement, we think it very 
desirable that they should be sustained. There was certainly 
neither incident, scene, or allusion last night that the most re- 
ligious Church member or the most bashful maiden could object 
to. 

As for the means of supporting the new theater, the census of 
1860 gives Wilmington a total population of 9,552, including 
5,202 white persons. This represented an increase of 1,621 in the 
white population since 1850, when the total was 7,264 with 3,581 
white persons. Furthermore, during the decade 1850-1860 there 
were great increases throughout the state in agricultural pro- 
duction as well as in industry, especially turpentine production 
in and near Wilmington. 16 By 1858 the town was also being 
served by three railroads: the Wilmington and Manchester to 
the south ; the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford, which by 
1860 had been completed almost to Rockingham; and the Wil- 
mington and Weldon, which connected with northern lines. 17 

As a result of these prosperous times, Wilmington could sup- 
port the theater, and in return the Marchant Company offered 
nightly during its month's engagement a repertoire of good 
variety and quality, ranging from Shakespeare to the better 
melodramas. Of the six Shakespearean plays, Macbeth on Oc- 
tober 27 and November 6, and The Merchant of Venice on Oc- 
tober 30 had the best receptions. As for Macbeth, with Elmore 
and Mrs. Gladstane in the leading roles, the reviewer for the 



I 



18 Henderson, North Carolina, IT, 176-178. 
17 Henderson, North Carolina, Tl, 155. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 123 

Daily Journal stated that "Not one stock company in ten could 
have done better," 18 while The Merchant of Venice was said to 
have been ". . . better presented than we have seen it in pre- 
tentious Metropolitan Theatres." 19 Among the best of the con- 
temporary English and American offerings were Edward Bul- 
wer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons, or Love and Price on October 
14, which was described as being "fresh, buoyant, youthful" and 
"the Romeo and Juliet of modern times" ; 20 Dion Boucicault's The 
Willow Copse on October 25 ; and James Sheridan Knowles's The 
Wife on October 26 and The Hunchback on October 29. In ad- 
dition to The Honey Moon of the opening night, other romantic 
plays in the Elizabethan style were James Rees's Lucretia Bor- 
gia on November 2 and 11, and Henry Hart Milman's Fazio, or 
the Italian Wife on November 8. Among the better melodramas 
were William Dunlap's The Stranger, adapted from Kotzebue's 
play of the same title, on October 15; John Howard Payne's 
Therese, or the Orphan of Geneva, adapted from a French melo- 
drama of the same title, October 16 ; and Pizarro on October 23, 
which could have been one of three adaptations from Kotzebue 
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Charles Smith, or William Dun- 
lap. On November 13 the company closed its engagement with a 
benefit performance for Marchant, the bill being Paul Pry, a 
contemporary American play by John Brougham, and two farces, 
Bamboozling by T. E. Wilks, and the anonymous Who*s My Hus- 
band? The theater then remained unoccupied until December 21, 
when a portion of the Marchant Company returned from Charles- 
ton to feature Andrew Jackson Neafi for four nights. He ap- 
peared successively in Bulwer-Lytton's Richlieu, Morris Barnett's 
comedy The Serious Family, BoucicauhVs The Corsican Brothers, 
and R. T. Conrad's Jack Cade, or the Kentish Rebellion, which 
had recently been adjudged by Edwin Forrest the best play writ- 
ten by an American and for which Conrad received a prize. 21 

The season continued on December 27 at Mozart Hall with a 
week's exhibition of Dr. Beale's Grand Illuminated Panorama 
of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky and the River and Falls of 
Niagara, with vocal and instrumental music and Signor Valdi's 



» October 28, 1858. 

19 November 1, 1858. 

20 Daily Journal, October 15, 1858. 
n Daily Journal, December 24, 1858, 



124 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Marionette Family. Contemporaneously, RavePs Martinetti and 
Blondin Troupe opened an engagement at Thalian Hall on De- 
cember 28 and played nightly through January 8, featuring 
Charles Blondin, the famous tightrope walker who attracted 
nation-wide attention during the summers of 1859 and 1860 by 
walking across Niagara Falls several times. 22 The troupe offered 
comic pantomines with various kinds of dancing by French 
artists. 

The Blondin Troupe opened in Charleston on Monday, Jan- 
uary 10, and played through January 22, 23 during which time 
the Marchant Company returned to Wilmington to star James 
E. Murdoch. After January 22 a portion of the company re- 
mained in Wilmington through February 25, with Miss Maggie 
Mitchell replacing Mrs. Gladstane after January 22, and Miss 
Amy Frost replacing Miss Mitchell after February 5. The stock 
plays were interrupted February 7-11 by Matt Peel's Original 
Campbell Minstrels, and February 12, 14-15 by the popular 
magician Wyman. 

Among the new plays presented by the Marchant Company 
from January 10 through February 25 were Bulwer-Lytton's 
Money, or Duplicity Exposed on January 12 and 15; Schiller's 
The Robbers, January 13 ; the anonymous adaptation of Cooper's 
novel The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, or the Indian, February 4; 
the anonymous spectacle The Sea of Ice, or a Thirst for Gold, 
February 16-19 and 22 ; Knowles's William Tell, February 21 ; 
and John Banim's Dawon and Pythias, or the Test of Friendship, 
February 24. In the meantime J. Insco Williams' Bible Panorama 
opened at Mozart Hall on January 25 but was moved on January 
26 to the Military Hall in the rear of the Episcopal Church, where 
it continued through February 5. On February 2-8 Stephen 
Massett offered his Songs and Chit-Chat of Travel in Many 
Lands at the Court House, and the Panorama of Dr. Kane's 
Arctic Voyages was on display at Mozart Hall February 16-19. 

On March 10 the well-known New Orleans English Opera 
Company under the direction of W. S. Lyster appeared for three 
nights at Thalian Hall, still under the management of Marchant. 



22 William F. McDermott, "Niagara's Daredevils," Readers' Digest, XLI (December, 1942), 
113. 

^Hoole, Ante-BeUum Charleston Theatre, 150. 




N 



73 8 




B. M, JENKINS, Sole Lessee and Imager. . 

JOHN DAVIS , r:y-^~---~ — Htoye Manage* 

Bv request of numerous citizens and patrons of the Drama, 

MR. GEORGE BAILEY 

Being horn* on a visit from Lee's Army in "V irginia, will apppear in his celtbra- 
• " tod character of "Major Jones," in the Comedy of 

' IHAJOIl J0I1S' COURTSHIP- 

ASSISTED BY 

MISS EMILY BA1LY AS - - MISS MARY ST A LUNGS 



MISS FANNY SA/LY AS • HESIAH STALLINGS 

bupported by the whole Company. 



Fancy Dance - Miss H a Warner, 



MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 7th, 1865. 

Will be presented the admire* Comedy of 

. MAJOR JONES'. COURTSHIP! '- 

or, 

THE ADVENTURES OF A C H R I ST M A S E V E ! 

MAJOR JONES .... 

Miss il/ary Stallings 

M\m Kcsiah fitallfeqp 

Dr. Peter Jones - _'-. - - 

Crotchett, (alias Wiggins,) . - 

Bob ^foreland, (a young planter,) 

Bill Simpson (a Constable) - - • 

Ned, - . - ' . 

Brutus - ' - - : - r 

Mrs. Stallings • - - . - 



Mr. GEORGE BATLEY 

J/iss Emily Baily 

Miss -Fanny Bailey 

Mr. Herbert. 

Mr. D. T. Anderson. 

Mr. Webb 

Mr. Van Ostcn 

Mr. Lewis 

. - Mr. Corbet 

Mrs. J. Davis 



aaseawte 



JJttr whioh 



maw FANCY MNCB, 



IBS SELINA WARNER. 



To Conclude with the Screaming Farce, of 

SKGTCHJB4 W HfBIA. 



COUNT GLORIEUX 

Tom Tape, 

Sir Matthew Scraggs 

Captain Dorrington 

Milton - 

Sally Scraggs 

Lady Scraggs 

Popyn 






Mr. JOHN- DAVIS. 

Mr. D. T. Anderson. 

Mr. Coleman. 

Mr. Herbert. 

Mr. Webb. 

Miss Ida Morton. 

- . Mrs. J. Davis. 

Miss Seiina Warner. 



Doors open at a quarter before 7 ; Commence at half past "seven. 



Price of admission as nenal. 



HANDBILL FOR MONDAY. FEBRUARY 6. 1X<55. THE RILL IS ERRONEOUSLY 
DATED FEBRUARY 7. COURTESY OF THE STATE LIBRARY. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 125 

The operas were Rossini's Cinderella, Bellini's La Somnambula, 
and Balfe's Bohemian Girl. Attendance was good, and the review- 
er for the Daily Journal felt that the whole company "fully sus- 
tains all that has been said of them abroad." 24 Thus ended the 
first season at the new Thalian Hall, with a total of eighty-five 
nights of entertainment. Mozart Hall, however, carried on with 
D. D. Griswold's vocal concert on April 1 ; and the Katie Estelle 
Troupe, under the management of Charles Mackenzie, offered 
musical pieces, songs, and dances there April 12 through 16. 

The season 1859-1860 opened on September 28 with the F. J. 
Christopher Minstrels, Charles Wood, manager, at Thalian Hall. 
Although the company played but three nights, we are told that 
"The entertainment was a good one," 25 the instrumental music 
being especially admired as well as Christopher and Tim Morriss. 
The theater then remained closed until December 5, when J. S. 
Parker presented the Parker Family for two nights without 
advertising titles of plays, though H. W. Gossin was the featured 
actor. A week later, on December 12, Signor Donnetti's and 
Colonel Wood's Troop of Educated Dogs, Monkeys, and Goats 
brought the first animals to the new stage and drew good audi- 
ences for three nights. On December 26 an unusual type of en- 
tertainment in the form of B. G. Marsh's Company of Juvenile 
Comedians, forty in number, became a hit with a week's offering 
of plays and spectacles, including the popular Sea of Ice on De- 
cember 30. The fad of the panorama continued the variety of 
entertainment on January 3 with Dr. E. Beale's Wonderful Pan- 
opticon and Mechanical Exhibition of India and the Sepoy Re- 
bellion, which remained for five nights. The intricacy of the con- 
struction and operation of such exhibitions is suggested by the 
following portion of the Daily Journal review: "The aquatic 
scenery, with ships and steamers moving about, is truly re- 
markable, as are also the battle pieces, with the vast number of 
figures in actual march motion, cannon firing, etc., etc." 26 At 
the end of the month Buckley's Burlesque Opera Troupe with the 
Leviathan Band of the World played January 27-28 with no titles 
of pieces advertised. Next appeared the French Opera Comique 



** March 11. 1859. 

* Daily Journal. September 29, 1859. 

"•January 4. 1860, 



126 The North Carolina Historical Review 

and Operette on February 20-21, featuring Mile. Darcy in La 
Chatte Metamorphosee and Toinette et Son Carabinier, with 
afterpieces. 

The only stock company to appear during the season for a 
good run was W. M. Fleming's group "from the principal South- 
ern Theatres," according to the advertisements. During its en- 
gagement from April 16 through May 5, the most significant new 
plays were Boucicault's London Assurance on April 20 and Mrs. 
Catherine Gore's The Maid of Croissey, or Theresa's Vow on May 
5. In addition to the most popular Shakespearean plays, another 
Elizabethan play, Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts, 
was offered on April 24, and the character of Sir Giles Overreach 
as played by Fleming was well received. 

As an obvious result of growing tensions, the fateful third 
season, during which the war clouds were gathering and finally 
broke, was even more sporadic than the preceding one had been. 
Two panoramas, Pilgrim's Progress, September 17-28, and the 
Washington Panorama, October 1-3, both at the City Hall, open- 
ed the season. Beginning on October 29, Thalian Hall, under 
Marchant's management, presented the H. C. Cooper Opera Com- 
pany, with twenty-two artists, in a week of grand opera. Then the 
theater was reopened for a week on November 12 under the man- 
agement of Messrs. Thome and Hamilton, whose company offer- 
ed no important new plays except Daniel Terry's adaptation 
Guy Mannering, or the Gypsy's Prophecy on November 17. Al- 
though this was a capable company, the reason for its short en- 
gagement is plainly stated by the Daily Journal for November 17 : 

The political excitement now pervading the country interferes 
with every branch of business, and destroys the interest in every 
kind of amusement. At least so it would seem, judging by the 
inadequate support given to the really talented Dramatic Com- 
pany now performing in our theatre. It is to their credit, as a 
correspondent says, that their efforts to please have suffered no 
diminution by reason of the smallness of their audiences. 

After a three-day engagement by the George Christy Minstrels 
beginning December 13 and a two-day stand by the Duprez and 
Green New Orleans Burlesque Opera Troupe February 8-9, 
there was no professional entertainment until the J. H. Bailey 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 127 

Troupe, offering stock and variety, appeared in its own tent on 
Boundary Street (now Fifth) between Chestnut and Princess 
from April 1 through 15. On April 16 the Daily Journal an- 
nounced that the performance for that evening had been post- 
poned "owing to circumstances of a public nature, which will be 
hereafter explained," but there was no further explanation. 

The fourth season, 1861-1862, opened very late and was also 
irregular. On December 7 the famous Zouaves, French soldiers 
of the Crimea, offered a variety program with pantomines and 
drills. Then the theater was dark until January 9, when the 
Thespian Family offered rather weak stock for four nights. A 
month later, on February 10, appeared the Confederate Minstrels, 
which provoked the following editorial comment indicating that 
the troops passing through Wilmington and stationed there were 
attending the theater : 

Now, the truth is, whatever people may think to the contrary, 
a place of public amusement is a public benefit in war times. 
Surely the soldier or officer who spends his time laughing at the 
witticisms of our friend "Bones," and he is apt to be very dry 
bones, does better than if he spends his time and money in a 
bar-room. 27 

Entertainment for the remainder of the season was varied but 
not outstanding, except for the appearances on May 20, 21, and 30 
of Blind Tom, a young Negro pianist of exceptional talent. The 
greatest attraction, perhaps, was the last one, the Pantechnopto- 
mon, which was Lee Mallory's exhibition of "Thousands of Mov- 
ing Figures Picturing Life in Camp and the Battle of Manassas," 
according to the advertisement. It remained at Thalian Hall 
from August 25 through September 5. 

After the tragic yellow fever epidemic in Wilmington from the 
early part of September until the middle of November, 1862, the 
first performance of any kind was on January 15, 1863, when 
Thalian Hall advertised for the "First Night" Mago del Mage, 
a magician, who played for three nights. The stricken population, 
however, was apparently still not ready for theatrical entertain- 
ment, and the theater remained closed until March 3, when Lee 
Mallory's War Panorama returned for three nights. The first 



87 Daily Journal, February 11, 1862. 



128 The North Carolina Historical Review 

play was not offered until March 25, in this instance The Fire- 
man, although the advertisement in the Daily Journal does not 
indicate the name of the company. This might have been the 
Bailey Company, which had appeared during the two previous 
seasons and which is identified in the advertisement for April 17 
as the group offering The Wept of the Wisk-ton-Wish, the next 
performance after The Fireman. Following an interval of the 
Grand Panoramic Mirror of the War, April 27-30 and May 2, 4-5, 
the Bailey Company became more or less established and offered 
scattered performances of stock through July 13. It was during 
this engagement that the first of the several popular war plays, 
John Davis's The Roll of the Drum, or the Battle of Manassas, 
and Vivandiere of the Potomac, was presented on June 11. The 
Bailey group was succeeded by the Katie Estelle Company, which 
opened on July 16 with Lucretia Borgia, and for the first time 
since April, 1861, the theater offered unbroken nightly produc- 
tions. These continued through August 14, with contemporaneous 
offerings July 22-28 by the Excelsior Burlesque Opera Troupe 
in the large room on the second floor of the City Hall now oc- 
cupied by the Wilmington Public Library. On August 25 the 
Bailey Company reappeared for one night with Ben Bolt and was 
followed by the Star Company with four performances beginning 
September 9. Thus closed the first summer season in the new 
theater. 

By this time Wilmington, instead of suffering economically, 
was beginning to experience a war boom of no small proportions. 
As early as April, 1862, the chief ports still in Confederate con- 
trol were Charleston, Mobile, and Wilmington ; 28 and Mobile was 
captured in August, 1864. 29 Between November, 1861, and March, 
1864, blockade-runners made 425 trips from Nassau to Wilming- 
ton, of which only sixty-two were unsuccessful. 30 Furthermore, 
during little more than a year preceding the fall of Fort Fisher 
on January 15, 1865, the transactions of British speculators in 
Wilmington for all kinds of merchandise amounted to sixty-six 
million dollars in gold, and sixty-five million dollars worth of 



28 James G. Randall, The Civil War and Reconstruction (Boston and New York: Heath, 
1937>. 579. 

* Randall, Civil War and Reco-rifitruetionn, 592. 
80 Henderson, North Carolina, II, 261. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 129 

cotton in gold was exported in return. 31 A general impression of 
this activity may be gained from the account of an eye witness, 
"A Late Confederate Officer," who submitted an article to 
Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1866 : 

It seemed singular to us that the United States should so long 
neglect to close the only port almost of the Confederacy into 
which every "dark of the moon" there ran a half dozen or so 
swift blockade-runners, freighted with cannon, muskets, and 
every munition of war — medicines, cloth, shoes, bacon, etc. 
Through that port were brought till January '65 all the stores 
and material needed by the indefatigable Colonel Gorgas, the 
Confederate Chief of Ordnance, the most efficient bureau officer 
the Confederacy had. 32 

The town was crowded with American and foreign speculators, 
especially English, and in addition there were many transient 
troops as well as temporary encampments, such as that of Mar- 
tin's Brigade in 1864. 3? Incidentally, there was an attempt on 
the part of the theatrical managers to capitalize on entertainment 
as a diversion from the war as observed in frequent lines in- 
serted in the advertisements, such as the following for June 5, 
1863, in the Daily Journal, announcing the Misses Sloman and 
their vocal varieties: "Let those now laugh who never laughed 
before, and those who love to laugh now laugh the more." 

The effect of such circulation of money and temporary in- 
crease of population was that the season 1863-1864 proved to be 
the fullest one during the years covered by this survey. The 
season opened on November 30, 1863, with variety entertainment 
at Thalian Hall and with the Bates and Jenkins Company at the 
City Hall. During the season of ten months, through September 
30, 1864, two hundred and forty performances were given in 
Thalian Hall; thirty-four were given by the Bates and Jenkins 
Company in City Hall through January 6 ; and a total of eleven 
entertainments was offered in Mozart Hall : the Stereoscopticon, 
consisting of portraits of Confederate generals and Belle Boyd, 
the Confederate spy, March 4-12 ; Charles Morton, comedian and 
vocalist, March 14-15; and the Bailey Company for one night 



31 James Spnmt, Chronicles of the Cape Fear River 16S0-liHt'> (Raleigh: Edwards and 
Broughton, 1916, 2d ed.), 387. 

32 John Johns, "Wilmington During the Blockade," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 
XXXIII (September, 1866), 498. 

38 Johns, "Wilmington During the Blockade," 497. 



130 The North Carolina Historical Review 

on March 23. The total of all performances during the season 
was two hundred and eighty-five, including matinees at City 
Hall on December 25 and January 1. Thalian Hall was closed 
only on January 6, 8-10 because of the freezing weather and 
July 13-17 for cleaning. 34 

After a one-night engagement by the Rebel Minstrels on De- 
cember 1, 1863, Mr. and Mrs. Harry McCarthy began on Decem- 
ber 3 with their variety company and played through December 
19. They were followed by the Estelle Company, which offered 
stock through January 5. The Bates and Jenkins Company then 
moved from City Hall to Thalian Hall and stayed there for the 
remainder of the season. Among the more significant new plays 
offered were the following: Dumas pere's La Tour de Nesle, 
January 1 ; Knowles' William Tell, February 11 ; Hugo's Angelo 
and Tishe, March 31; Maturin's Bertram, April 6; Boucicault's 
Used Up, April 13; Hugo's Tyrant of Padua, May 9; Byron's 
Werner, July 4 ; and Mrs. Henry Wood's East Lynne, September 
21-27. Of the many capable performers appearing with the 
Bates and Jenkins Company, the following were the most popu- 
lar : Walter Keeble, February 29- April 14, whose Shakespearean 
roles were outstanding; J. W. Thorpe, April 15-May 10; Miss 
C. A. Crystal, April 19-May 12; Theodore Hamilton, May 11- 
July 4 ; Miss Ida Vernon, May 30-July 9 and September 19 to the 
end of the season ; and Mr. and Mrs. John Davis, August 4 until 
the end of the season. 

The next season, October 1, 1864-August 26, 1865, was also 
full, with a total of 117 performances, all in Thalian Hall by the 
Bates and Jenkins Company, including a matinee at 11 :00 on 
October 6 to accommodate the crowds wanting to see Miss Vernon 
in East Lynne. However, the fall of Fort Fisher, the occupation 
of Wilmington by Federal troops, and the generally unsettled 
state of affairs at the end of the war naturally caused an abate- 
ment of theatrical activity. In addition, the inflationary economy 
must have caused theater-goers to consider twice before buying 
a ticket. For example, on August 29, 1864, prices of admission 
at Thalian Hall were advertised as follows : dress circle, $5.00 ; 
parquette, $3.00 ; center gallery, $5.00 ; and colored gallery, $3.00. 



M Daily Journal, July 18. 1864. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 131 

By October 26 of the same year, however, admission to all parts 
of the theater was $5.00. Nevertheless, the Bates and Jenkins 
Company continued with almost nightly performances through 
January 13, the day on which the final two-day bombardment of 
Fort Fisher began. 35 The theater then remained closed until 
January 25, when nightly performances were resumed through 
February 20. On the morning of February 22 Federal troops en- 
tered Wilmington under the command of General A. H. Terry. 36 

Within a week after Federal occupation, performances were 
resumed; on February 28 the following statement appeared in 
the advertisement for that evening's play, Miss Eloise Bridges's 
Lady Audley's Secret: "By permission of the military authorities 
the Theatre will be open this Tuesday Evening, February 28, 
1865. " 37 It is interesting to note also that the same advertisement 
announced a great drop in the prices of admission : dress circle, 
$1.00 ; parquette, 50 cents ; and center gallery $1.00. A later ad- 
vertisement on May 12 announced 25 cents as admission to the 
colored gallery. Stock pieces were offered nightly through March 
13; thereafter the company presented an average of about two 
plays a week through May 15, when nightly performances were 
resumed through May 26. The management of the company was 
then taken over by John H. Davis, who had previously been 
stage manager and actor, and the troupe remained through the 
summer offering light variety. On July 12 the company humor- 
ously advertised itself as the Wilmington Nightingale Opera 
Troupe and "re-engaged' ' itself nightly, except on July 15 and 
18, through July 26, and again August 18-19, 25-26. 

The season of 1865-1866 began on October 19 with the Davis 
Company's Lucretia Borgia, and, except for November 2-5, plays 
were given nightly through December 4 with Davis and Miss 
Vernon in the leading roles. On December 5 H. M. Jenkins was 
announced as lessee and manager, with Davis as stage manager. 
Variety was offered through December 13 except for December 
12, when Miss Vernon chose Camille for her farewell benefit 
performance. On December 25 the theater was advertised for 



85 R. D. W. Connor, North Carolina, Rebuilding an Ancient Commonwealth, 1584-1925 
(Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1929), II, 253. 
38 Sprunt, Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 495. 
"Herald of the Union, February 28, 1865. 



132 The North Carolina Historical Review 

rent by the week or month, 38 although Charley White's Burlesque 
Opera Troupe appeared for only one night on January 17, and 
Artemus Ward for two nights on February 7-8 with his Great 
Salt Lake City and the Valley of the Utah Panorama and ac- 
companying lecture. On March 19-20 Wilmington had the privi- 
lege of hearing grand opera when the Ghioni and Susini Company 
gave II Trovatore and Faust. The theater was then leased by 
J. H. Rogers, who opened on March 29 with Davis as manager 
and Mme. Carlotta Pozzoni as star, supported by the members 
of the old Davis Company. Performances were unbroken through 
April 11, except for March 30. On May 1-2 appeared Carter's 
Grand Combination Troupe with "Fifteen Beautiful Young 
Ladies," according to the advertisement, and this was followed by 
the Paradise Lost Tableaux on June 1-16 and 18. During the 
summer of 1866 the Bailey Troupe returned and offered stock 
plays at the theater once a week, on Wednesday evenings, from 
August 7 through September 26. 

During 1866-1867 the effects of reconstruction and the growing 
scarcity of surplus money resulted in the poorest season since 
the opening of the theater. During 1866-1868 the crop produc- 
tion in the Wilmington area was only one-fourth of the normal 
yield. 39 Furthermore, employment of labor became a problem 
after the freeing of over 10,000 slaves in the area ; 40 shipping was 
falling off because of the competition of Norfolk and Charleston 
and high railroad freight rates ; and no one had confidence in the 
town's banking facilities. 41 Editorials on "hard times" appeared 
frequently in the newspapers. 

The new season opened on October 2, 1866, with Edwin Blan- 
chard's Company, which used trained dogs in the plays, and it 
reappeared on October 5 and 12. Thereafter the theater was open 
for only eight nights through February 21, after which it re- 
mained closed until November 14. On July 20 John J. Hedrick 
announced in the newspapers that he had leased the theater and 
that he would rent to legitimate or amateur groups. 

The next season opened on November 14-15, 1867, with H. J. 



— — — — — -* 

a" Daily Dispatch. December 25. 1865. 

«» Bryant W. Ruark, "Some Phases of Reconstruction in Wilmington and the Comity of 
New Hanover," Historical Papers of the Trinity College Historical Society, XI (1915), 101. 
*° Ruark, "Some Phases of Reconstruction." 100. 
u Ruark. "Some Phases of Reconstruction." 105. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 133 

Sargent, The Scientific Illusionist and Wizard of the South. Two 
days after his appearance, the following editorial appeared in 
the Daily Post, edited by E. A. Paul: 

The "local [intelligence"] of the Journal had yesterday an article 
regretting the small amount of amusements, which come in the 
way of the people of our city. His remarks are trite, and are 
worthy of more than passing attention. With one of the best and 
most handsomely furnished theatres in the South, and with a 
population of fourteen thousand souls, it is strange that the 
Thalian Hall should be allowed to remain idle. . . . There are 
many people who possess in the highest degree, a taste for the 
legitimate drama, and it would be no very difficult task to incul- 
cate the same appreciation in others. Ours is an intelligent com- 
munity, more so for its size, than is perhaps any other in the 
South 42 

On November 19 the same editor stated that he had learned that 
Sargent had leased the theater and was forming a company. In 
the meantime, on December 21 a Panorama of the ruins of Co- 
lumbia, South Carolina, was exhibited for one night, followed 
on December 23-26 \>y Marshall and Doyle's Mikado Troupe of 
Japanese, offering variety. 

On December 30, 1867, the Sargent Company, featuring A. R. 
Phelps, opened with Banim's Damon and Pythias and played 
nightly through January 20. After the long dearth of dramatic 
entertainment and in spite of admission prices ranging from 
$1.00 to 25 cents, the company was warmly received. The Daily 
Journal stated that "... the troupe far surpasses any which has 
appeared here since the celebrated Marchant Troupe/' 43 while the 
Post commented that "The beauty and fashion and elite of Wil- 
mington nightly throng there . . . not since the days when Mar- 
chant first opened with his troupe in our then entirely new 
Theatre have such great pains been taken to please the lovers of 
the drama." 44 On January 18 there appeared in the Post a letter 
of thanks to the troupe signed by the mayor, John Dawson, and 
sixteen other "admirers of the Histrionic Art," offering Sargent 
a benefit performance. Sargent's letter of acceptance follows 
the letter of thanks, setting January 20 as the date of the benefit, 



*a November 17. 1867. 
« January 6, 1868. 
** January 4, 1868. 



134 The North Carolina Historical Review 

with G. W. LovelPs Love's Sacrifice. Although the theater was 
open for only eleven nights during the remainder of the season, 
the quality of entertainment was high, including Grau's German 
Opera Company, which presented Faust and The Magic Flute on 
March 30-31 ; Charles M. Barres' The Black Crook, the first suc- 
cessful American revue, which had played nearly two years in 
New York, June 1-4 ; and Harry McCarthy, June 8-9. 

The 1868-1869 season began on November 30 with the ventrilo- 
quist St. Maur for two nights, but there was no further entertain- 
ment until January 4, when the John Templeton Troupe offered 
an anonymous adaptation of Byron's Mazeppa, featuring Miss 
Kate Raymond and Her Champion Mare, Black Bess. This was 
repeated on the next night, and on January 6 Augustin Daly's 
Under the Gas Light was offered with * 'Engine and Cars and 
Railroad on the Stage," according to the advertisement. The tour- 
ing Under the Gas Light Company returned on January 15 and 
on the next night offered The Hidden Hand. On March 8-9 Mme. 
Fredericks Grand German Opera offered Martha and Fra Dia- 
valo y which drew large audiences. 45 The theater then remained 
open for eight nights, March 10-18, with Wyman the magician 
and the Hanlon Brothers Velocipede Troupe playing four nights 
each. Next came Mile. Marie Louise Durand's Opera Company, 
which presented Signor P. Brignoli, "the Greatest Lyric Tenor 
Living," in Bon Pasquale on April 9, the last night of the season. 
The reviewer for the Daily Journal stated that Brignoli's voice 
". . . possesses a power of music impossible to describe; but we 
think the great tenor did not do himself justice on this occa- 
sion." 46 In the main, he thought the recent German Opera Com- 
pany was better. 

The 1869-1870 season, with fifty nights of entertainment, was 
the fullest since the most prosperous of the war seasons, 1863- 
1864. The theater was opened on November 15 under the man- 
agement of John T. Ford, formerly owner of Ford's Theater in 
Washington, in which Lincoln had been assassinated. According 
to the advertisements, the company came from the Holliday Street 
Theatre in Baltimore, and it offered a week of stock, including 
T. W. Robertson's popular English comedy Caste on November 



« Daily Journal, March 9-10, 1869. 
"April 10, 1869. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 135 

20. Contemporaneously, the Tremaine Brothers and J. G. Pierson 
offered musical entertainment at Masonic Hall, November 16-20. 
At the theater Ford next offered the Chapman Sisters and C. B. 
Bishop in musical extravaganzas, December 29- January 1, and 
for the next two months there were short engagements of pano- 
ramas, trapeze artists, minstrels, and Wyman the magician. Be- 
ginning on March 7, however, the very capable Shakespearean 
actor Neil Warner, supported by the Ford Company, offered 
Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, 
Richelieu, and Richard HI. The writer for the Daily Journal 
stated that he had seen Macready, Forrest, and Junius Brutus 
Booth in the role of Hamlet but that Warner's interpretation was 
the best. His style was described as being "scholarly, graceful, 
and subdued." 47 Warner's portrayal of Romeo was reviewed in 
the Post as being "easy, unstrained, studious, and pains-taking 
. . . the acting was as smooth as the running rivulet." 48 

During the remainder of the season, Ford engaged Mrs. James 
A. Oates* Burlesque and Operatic Troupe, March 14-19; the 
McCullock and Brignoli Italian Opera Company on March 28-29 
with II Trovatore and Lucia di Lammermoor; Signor Rubini, 
European magician, March 31-April 2 ; and McEvoy's Hibernicon, 
a panorama of Ireland, April 7-9, the close of the season. 

The increase in the quantity and quality of the entertainment 
offered during 1869-1870 was very probably an indication of 
the economic recovery being made in Wilmington by 1870. In 
fact, despite the depression years 1866-1868, the turpentine and 
lumber trade in the town continued to prosper, and by the end 
of the decade there were frequently as many as one hundred 
sailing vessels in port at one time, for the river was too shallow 
for the larger steam freighters. 49 In 1866 the Wilmington Cham- 
ber of Commerce had been incorporated to stimulate trade and 
shipping, 50 and in 1872 it made a detailed commercial survey, an 
extract of which reads as follows: "The trade of this port is 
steadily and constantly increasing, and as our harbor improves 
will continue to do so in more rapid proportion." 51 The total 



* March 8, 1870. 

<* March 10, 1870. 

* 9 Sprunt, Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 501. 

50 Ruark, "Some Phases of Reconstruction," 105. 

51 Sprunt, Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 512. 



136 The North Carolina Historical Review 

population of the town in 1870 was 13,446, including 5,526 white 
persons ; the total increase since 1860 was 3,894. 

This survey has revealed that once Wilmington acquired a 
modern and sizable theater, the people of the town supported 
this cultural institution as ably as the varying conditions of 
the turbulent times permitted. Immediately after its opening on 
October 12, 1858, the theater had fairly full seasons for two 
years. Then, as the political situation in the South grew increas- 
ingly serious during the latter part of 1860 and the early part 
of 1861, interest in the theater naturally declined. After the 
general unrest caused by the beginning of the war, an additional 
setback occurred in the form of the yellow fever epidemic during 
the fall of 1862. Beginning in the spring of 1863, however, theat- 
rical activity gradually revived as Wilmington began to feel the 
effects of greatly increased trade brought about by blockade run- 
ning, and the season 1863-1864 proved to be the fullest in the 
years covered by the survey. After the war the performances 
gradually declined, as a result of the difficulties of reconstruc- 
tion, until the season of 1866-1867, the poorest of all, during 
which only eleven performances occurred. Economic recovery, 
however, was under way by the last two years of the decade, and 
the season 1869-1870 witnessed a restoration to the normal ac- 
tivity of ante-bellum years but not to the flourishing times of the 
blockade-running period. 



PAPERS FROM THE FIFTIETH ANNUAL SESSION 

OF THE STATE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL 

ASSOCIATION, RALEIGH, DECEMBER, 1950 

INTRODUCTION 
By Christopher Crittenden 

The fiftieth annual session of the State Literary and Historical 
Association was held at the Hotel Sir Walter in Raleigh, Friday, 
December 1, 1950. Meeting concurrently with the Association 
were the North Carolina Folklore Society, the North Carolina 
State Art Society, the North Carolina Society for the Preserva- 
tion of Antiquities, and the North Carolina Society of County 
Historians. At the morning meeting of the Association, with 
Vice President George M. Stephens of Asheville presiding, the 
following papers were read: "The North Carolina Sojourn of 
the First American Novelist," by Richard Walser of Raleigh; 
"The State Literary and Historical Association: 1900-1950/' by 
William Burlie Brown of Chapel Hill ; and "North Carolina Books 
for 1950," by Dorothy Lloyd Gilbert of Guilford College. A busi- 
ness session followed. 

At the evening meeting, with Vice President Gilbert presiding, 
Vice President Stephens delivered an address and Mrs. Thomas 
Jefferson Byerly of Winston-Salem, governor of the Society of 
Mayflower Descendants in the state of North Carolina, announced 
that the annual Mayflower Cup award had been made to Mr. 
Max Steele of Chapel Hill for his book, Debby. The meeting was 
brought to a close by an address, "Old Plantation Days," by Dr. 
Archibald Rutledge of McClellansville, S. C. 

Most of these papers and addresses are included in the pages 
that follow, and it is believed that they will be read with interest 
both by those who did not have opportunity to hear them in the 
first instance and also by those who, though they were present 
when the papers were delivered, will nevertheless enjoy the op- 
portunity to refresh their memories as to what was said. In most 
cases the authors have made certain revisions and the usual edit- 
ing has been done, but in no instance has the original meaning 
been materially altered. 

[187] 



THE NORTH CAROLINA SOJOURN OF THE FIRST 

AMERICAN NOVELIST 

By Richard Walser 

In 1792, probably in the late summer or autumn, a young man 
left Boston and, taking the various modes of transportation then 
necessary, traveled to North Carolina. No drum and fife corps 
greeted him ; no flowers were strewn in his path. In North Caro- 
lina he visited relatives, studied law, and wrote poems. After 
being in the state about a year, he caught a fever, from which 
he died in September, 1793. The location of his grave has never 
been established. 

Now, there is little in this preceding paragraph to cause ex- 
citement, and the matter would deserve no notice at all one 
hundred and fifty years afterwards, if it were not for the fact 
that the young man happened to have the name of William Hill 
Brown, that three years before his southern trip he had published 
in Boston a novel called The Power of Sympathy, 1 that the work 
is now acknowledged the first American novel and its author the 
first American novelist. 2 

The fact that Brown died in North Carolina allows this state 
the distinction of providing the final scenes in the lives of two 
of the most important American literary "firsts." Thomas God- 
frey, whose authorship of The Prince of Parthia makes him the 
first professional American dramatist, came down from Phila- 
delphia and, like Brown, caught a fever. He died in Wilmington 
in 1763. Unlike the forgotten grave of luckless Brown, Godfrey's 
resting place has been clearly marked for the literary peregri- 
nator to see. 



1 The Power of Sympathy or. The Triumph of Nature. Founded in Truth. 2 vols. Boston : 
Isaiah Thomas and Company, 1789. Reissued in facsimile, with a bibliographical note by 
Milton Ellis, by the Columbia University Press (1937). 

8 Biographical data from Arthur W. Brayley, "The Real Author of 'The Power of Sym- 
pathy,' " The Bostonian, I (December, 1894), 224-233; Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, 
The Famous Mather Byles (Boston: W. A. Butterfield, 1914); Emily Pendleton and Milton 
Ellis, Philenia, The Life and Works of Sarah Wentworth Morton, University of Maine 
Studies, 2nd Series, no. 20, December, 1931; Milton Ellis, "The Author of the First American 
Novel," American Literature, IV (January, 1933), 356-368; Charles Knowles Bolton, "Some 
Notes on Gawen Brown's Family," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 
LXIV (October, 1933), 317-322; Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, American Authors, 
1600-1900 (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1938), 107-108; Milton Ellis, "Brown, William Hill," 
Dictionary of American Biography (1944), supplement one, XXI, 125-126; and notes compiled 
by the late Professor Milton Ellis in his preparation of a biography of Brown, and now de- 
posited in the office of the Department of English, University of Maine, Orono. 

[ 138 ] 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 139 

Let us glance over the life of our novelist before he set forth 
to dwell in a new part of the young nation. William Hill Brown 
was born in Boston in 1765. On December 1 of that year he was 
baptized at the Hollis Street Church. His father Gawen Brown, 
the celebrated clockmaker, was married three times. His second 
wife was Elizabeth Byles, a daughter of the famous Reverend 
Mather Byles and a great-granddaughter of the even more 
famous Increase Mather. The third was a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth 
(Hill) Adams. William Hill Brown was the first child of this 
union, a daughter Elizabeth (Eliza) the second. In all, Gawen 
Brown had fourteen children, several of whom died in infancy. 

As a youth William Hill Brown, after attending school, evinced 
an interest in literature. He was a familiar in the smart Bohemian 
circle in Boston which included Robert Treat Paine, Jr. He wrote 
poems, stories, essays, plays, and at least two novels. 3 His literary 
confidante and adviser was Catharine Byles, who always called 
herself Brown's aunt, though she was only a half-sister of his 
father's second wife and therefore of no blood relationship. 

In 1789, when Brown was twenty-three, Isaiah Thomas of 
Boston brought out anonymously the young writer's first novel, 
The Power of Sympathy. In thin disguise the book, advertised 
even then as the first American novel, 4 related the story of an 
actual seduction which was the scandal of Boston at the time. 
The real persons involved, the Perez Mortons and their connec- 
tions, are said to have been highly indignant at this treatment by 



•Besides The Power of Sympathy, Brown wrote "HaiTiot: or, The Domestic Reconciliation," 
a romantic tale, in the Massachusetts Magazine, January, 1789; a series of twenty-four verse 
fables in The Boston Magazine (November 30, 1805, to April 26, 1806) and The Emerald 
(June 7, 1806, to January 24, 1807); "The Yankee," a series of twenty-two literary and 
political essays, in the Columbian Centinel (Boston), (September 1, 1790, to December 11, 
1790) ; Ira and Isabella: or the Natural Children. A Novel, Founded in Fiction. A Posthumous 
Work (Boston: Belcher and Armstrong, 1807); "West-Point Preserved," a tragedy apparently 
lost, the epilogue of which has been preserved in The North-Carolina Journal (Halifax), June 
5, 1797; a lost "comedy, entitled Penelope, in the style of the West-Indian," the latter a play 
written by Richard Cumberland and produced in 1771 (see "Pollio: a Monody to the Memory 
of Mr. W. H. Brown" in The Works, in Verse and Prose, of the Late Robert Treat Paine, 
Boston: J. Belcher, 1812; the poem "Pollio" appeared previously in the Columbian Centinel, 
October 2, 1793, and in The North-Carolina Journal, December 11, 1793); and miscellaneous 
poems from 1789 to 1793 in the Massachusetts Magazine and the New England Palladium, 
sometimes under the pen name "Pollio." 

Two unique productions, in addition to the foregoing, are probably the work of Brown: 
Occurrences of the Times. Or, The Transactions of Four Days. Viz. — From Friday the 16th, 
to Monday the 19th January 1789. A Farce. In Two Acts ([Boston]: [Benjamin Russell], 
[1789] ) , a satire on Boston residents who considered themselves slandered by The Power of 
Sympathy; and The Better Sort: or, The Girl of Spirit. An Operatical, Comical Farce (Boston: 
Isaiah Thomas, 1789), a good-natured, self-condemning piece, poking fun at those who write 
of scandal. There are copies of Occurrences of the Times at Harvard, Brown, and the Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Society; of The Better Sort, at Harvard, Brown, Yale, the New York Public 
Library, and the Massachusetts Historican Society. The Yale copy of The Better Sort has this 
inscription on the title page: "Catharine Byles, presented by Mr. Wm. H. Brown." 

No complete bibliography of the writings of William Hill Brown has been compiled. 

* Milton Ellis, "Bibliographical Note," The Power of Sympathy (The Facsimile Text 
Society. Publication No. 38; New York: Columbia University Press, 1937; 2 vols.). 



140 The North Carolina Historical Review 

one who was their neighbor and supposed to be their friend. Tra- 
dition tells us that the Mortons bought all copies of the book 
available and attempted to suppress the volume. 

It is doubtful that young Brown was great affected. He con- 
tinued to write and publish for the next several years; but the 
fact that he was author of the scandalous book, even if generally 
known, was not publicly admitted. 

Things do not seem, however, to have been going very well for 
the writer. He clearly wished to pursue a life devoted to belles- 
lettres and, consequently, he had not provided himself with a 
lucrative profession or business. Such a course would hardly 
please the more sober members of his family. His half brother, 
Mather Brown, 5 had developed almost a dislike for him. On July 
25, 1791, from London, where he had established himself as a 
fashionable painter, Mather Brown wrote his aunts, the Misses 
Catharine and Mary Byles: ". . . please to remember me to my 
Father and Friends, from whom I wish to hear, (but I do not 
wish to be troubled with any more of Will. Brown's ill manners 
and impertinence) . . . ." 6 The deviltries which young Brown had 
been engaging in were thus significant enough to be the subject 
of trans-Atlantic correspondence. 

Whatever the nature of these difficulties — and it seems that 
the roguish, irresponsible, and unconventional air of the Bo- 
hemian was somewhat accountable — to say nothing of the literary 
hangover of The Power of Sympathy as well as Brown's occupa- 
tional indolence — the writer decided to depart Boston and see 
how things were elsewhere. 

In the latter part of 1792 he traveled to the South, and the next 
we hear of him he is already in Murfreesborough, North Caro- 
lina. There his closest sister Elizabeth (Eliza) lived. Baptized 
July 5, 1767, she was only a year and a half younger than her 
brother. On September 28, 1791, she married John Hinchborne, 7 
a merchant of Boston, and soon afterwards moved with him to 
the Hinchborne family 8 plantation at Murfreesborough. 

6 [Frederick W. Coburn], "Brown, Mather," Dictionary of American Biography (1929), 
III. 144-145. 

' Byles Papers, transcripts in Masschusetts Historical Society, Boston. 

T Spelled also Hitchborne, Hichborn, Hitchburn, Hichbonn, Hichburn, Hitchburne, and 
Hitchborn. 

8 In the Census of 1790, Hertford County, North Carolina, the "John Hichborn" family is 
listed with four "Free white males of 16 years and upward, including heads of families," and 
two slaves. No females are listed. It would appear that Eliza in 1792 had a widowed father- 
in-law and two adult brothers-in-law. It is, of course, possible that she married the elder 
"John Hichborn." 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 141 

Brown had other connections with the South. Two of his half 
brothers had removed there. Gawen, Jr., eleven years older, 
settled at Petersburg, Virginia, and became a prosperous mer- 
chant and planter. John Franklin Brown, nine years older, had 
been engaged in trade throughout the South, part of the time in 
Virginia. Besides the family relationships of these two, it seems 
probable, though genealogical records do not prove the case con- 
clusively, that the young novelist had other kinfolk living in 
North Carolina at the time of his arrival here. William Hill, of 
Boston, quite likely the brother of Brown's mother and evidently 
the one for whom the writer was named, visited the Cape Fear 
some time after his graduation from Harvard in 1756. 9 In North 
Carolina he married the niece of the fabulous "King" Roger 
Moore, aligning himself with one of the most affluent families of 
the colony. He left four sons, all of whom were prominent in 
the region. 

We do not know that Brown visited these connections. At any 
rate, he was present in Murfreesborough in January, 1793, when 
his sister Eliza died at her home there. 10 

Though Brown is now remembered primarily for his famous 
novel, during his life he was more proficient as a poet. His first 
composition after his arrival in North Carolina appeared in The 
North-Carolina Journal (Halifax) in the issue of March 13, 1793. 

The "ELEGY on Mrs. Eliza H "" is dated from 

Murfreesborough, January 12, 1793, but there is no signature. 
The seven eight-line stanzas are undistinguished; and were it 
not for Brown's most certain connection with the poem, it would 
pass unnoticed. According to the poem, the young wife's death 
was sudden : 

'Twas night, and no one fear'd the close 

Of life's uncertain play ; 
'Twas night, yet ere the morning rose 

A palid corse she lay. 



»S. A. Ashe, "William H. Hill," Biographical History of North Carolina (1907), IV. 
176-180. 

10 The Columbian Centinel (Boston), February 6, 1793, has the following listing under 
"DEATHS": "—At Murphysborough, (N. C.) Mrs. Eliza Hitchburn, AEt. 24, wife of Mr. 
John Hitchburn, and daughter of Mr. Gowen Brown, of this place." The same journal, on 
February 27, 1793, has this similar notice: "At Murphpsboro', Mrs. Elizabeth Hicnbom, wife 
of Mr. John Hichborn, mer. and daughter to Mr. Gowen Brown, of this town. AEt. 25." 
Her correct age was twenty-five. 

11 The nine dots following the "H" clearly spell out Hinchborne or Hitchburne. 



142 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The clue which resolves any doubt about the identity of the 
verses is in the sixth stanza. We know that at that time Brown's 
sister was shortly expecting her first child. The sixth stanza 
reads : 

Chang' d in an hour — the sudden blow 

Her fancied view destroys : 
Pass but two moons she thought to know, 

A mother's anxious joys. 
On these no more her hopes descant, 

For low Eliza lies : 
And fallen with the parent plant, 

Th' expected blossom dies. 

In a letter 12 to Mrs. Sarah Holmes, No. 156 Strand, London, 
dated November, 1793, Catharine Byles wrote of the death during 
January in Carolina of Brown's sister "who with agreeable 
prospects was settled in life, & expecting soon to experience the 
anxious pleasure of being a parent." 

Brown's authorship of the poem is assumed not only because 
he was a facile poet and would most likely be the one to record 
his grief in an elegy, but because of the tardiness of its printing. 
There was no newspaper in Murf reesborough, where Brown was 
as the time of his sister's death. He went to Halifax soon after- 
wards and was certainly there before April 1. From January to 
March, then, Brown evidently kept the poem among his papers 
and then submitted it to Abraham Hodge, 13 the Halifax editor, 
after his arrival in the village to study law. 

Sometime during the early months of 1793 Brown took up the 
course of legal instruction in the office of General William R. 
Davie, 14 at Halifax, where the Revolutionary hero had located 
ten years before and where he then had a large, successful prac- 
tice. The poet seems not to have remained in Halifax on a per- 
manent basis, but to have traversed the thirty miles or more 
between the two river towns, Murfreesborough on the Chowan 
and Halifax on the Roanoke, with rather constant regularity. He 
had become a fast friend of the editor, Abraham Hodge, whom 
apparently Brown saw as the only publishing outlet for his poems 



12 Byles Papers, transcripts in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. 

13 Archibald Henderson, North Carolina, The Old North State and the New (1941), 1, 
491-492. 

14 S. A. Ashe, "William Richardson Davie," Biographical History of North Carolina (1907), 
VI, 193. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 143 

in the hinterlands of North Carolina. Somewhat later he was even 
turning a penny or so as a result of his journalistic association, 
for he was listed as one of the two persons in Murfreesborough 
to whom "Payments may be made" for The North-Carolina 
Journal. 15 

In the Journal of April 3 appeared a second poem, "Death of 
Louis XVI." It is dated "Halifax, April 1" and signed "COLUM- 
BUS," the pen name Brown used again later. Prefacing the poem 
is a letter: 

Mr. Hodge, 
The writer of the following lines is no friend to Kings : He is 
the friend of human life. He however considers his country under 
obligations to the last King of the French, and in common with 
the free, the dispassionate and the grateful of his countrymen, 
pours forth the tribute of respectful pity to the manes of the 
desolated Monarch. In common also with the philosopher, the 
philanthropist and the politician, he declares his indignation and 
his sorrow are equally awakened, that the progress of Liberty 
should be disgraced with the blood of a King, whose errors have 
arisen more from situation than principle. 

The poem which follows, in eight four-line stanzas, has various 
references to Pity, Imagination, Democracy, Rage, Murder, Sor- 
row, and other typical eighteenth-century personifications, as well 
as a comment about COLUMBIA, who "shall raise the trophied 
urn" and "wander oft, her Royal Friend to mourn." It is just the 
sort of grandiose piece which papers like The North-Carolina 
Journal used in their poetry corners, and we cannot doubt that 
Abraham Hodge was pleased to have a local contributor fill the 
space so admirably. Regardless of its rather dubious political 
sentiment, the verses are impressive with "Notes and Imitations" 
from Delia Crusca, Dryden, and Ossian. 

The chef d'oeuvre of Brown's poetizing came, however, in the 
issue of July 3, signed again from Halifax by "COLUMBUS" 
and titled "The Lion and the Tarapen." The excellence of this 
quite admirable selection, containing few of the cliches so numer- 
ous in his first two North Carolina efforts, is due in considerable 
measure to the fact that the poem was not one of untried medium 
to the writer. Brown had written some two dozen verse fables 



™The North-Carolina Journal (Halifax), July 10, 1798. 



144 The North Carolina Historical Review 

previously, though this was one of the first to be published. 16 The 
principal difference in this (the last poem he wrote, so far as we 
know) and the earlier ones was that the fables written before 
he left Boston where composed primarily in iambic tetrameter 
couplets, while "The Lion and the Tarapen" is in pentameters. 
In length the other fables ran from fifty-four to one hundred 
fifty lines ; "The Lion and the Tarapen" has exactly one hundred. 
Most of the fables are animal stories pointing up a moral, with 
the villain eventually coming to grief. Political satire is evident 
in many, one of them, "The Revolution," 17 relating the defeat of 
a tyrant Lion, symbol of vanquished Britain, as is the case in the 
more mature poem "The Lion and the Tarapen." Throughout 
them all, whether dealing in politics, manners, or morals, Brown 
wrote expertly in a genre formerly explored but not pre-empted 
by Jean de la Fontaine in France and John Gay in England with 
their Fables, and John Trumbull in America with his satiric 
verse. 18 

After its initial publication, "The Lion and the Tarapen" was 
reprinted at least three times in the next sixty years. Abraham 
Hodge used it in his North-Carolina Almanack for 1795, 19 where 
continuous portions of it ran along the tops of the calendars for 
the various months. On January 26, 1809, The Star (Raleigh) 
printed it with this heading : 

The following was admired 14 years ago, as an amusing, well 
told story, possessing much of the true spirit of Poetry. Many 
who read it when first published will be pleased to have it again 
brought to their recollections, and may perhaps be desirous to 
preserve it as a curious relick on [sic] their files of interesting 
and useful matter. It is possible also the frequent mention which 
our ivitty politicians have lately made of "Tarrapins" and 
"Lions" may now give it an interest among the wits which it 
never had before. 20 

Brown was not given as the author. 



18 "The Spider and the Bee," Herald of Freedom, September 4, 1788, may be Brown's. 
Certainly he wrote "The Sailor and the Bramin," Columbian Centinel, December 1, 1790; it 
was reprinted in The Emerald, June 7, 1806, as Fable 15 in the series then running. 

17 The Boston Magazine, I (January 25, 1806), 4. 

18 The Fables of William Hill Brown, unpublished paper written at the University of 
Maine in 1931 by Doris L. Gross, Stonington, Maine. 

18 By William Thomas and published at Halifax. There is a copy in the American Anti- 
quarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. 

20 James S. Purcell, Jr., in Literary Culture in North Carolina before 1820 (Duke Uni- 
versity: unpublished doctoral dissertation, 1950), 299, n. 122, suggests as explanation for the 
1809 interest in the poem that in the years before the War of 1812 the Federalists slightingly 
referred to the proponents of the embargoes as Terrapins. Naturally the Lion is England. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 145 

In 1854 Mrs. Mary Bayard Clarke included it in Wood-Notes, 
a two-volume work which was the first anthology of North Caro- 
lina poetry. 21 

The selection is sufficiently significant to deserve another hear- 
ing, all these years later. Its importance for us is not only that 
it is a verse fable written by a Bostonian, the first American 
novelist, with an almost distinctive North Carolina tone; it is 
likewise a creditable and commendable poem. Its humor and 
accelerated story-telling are quite beyond the talents of the 
literary amateur. 

The LION and the TARAPEN 22 
Bella! Horrida Bella! — Vir. 23 

The race is not to the swift nor the battle to 
the strong. — Sol. 24 

A fam'd Hibernian, in this curious age, 
Confin'd the King of Beasts within a cage ; 
Keeping his Majesty in durance vile — 
From place to place he journeyed many a mile: 
Travell'd thro' Chowan, Halifax and Nash, 25 
And pocketed a devilish deal of Cash ; 
Commenc'd a gentleman, and taught to play, 
He grew in grace with Fortune every day : 
As Tully eloquent, as Stentor 26 loud, 
Thus he harangu'd the ever-wond'ring crowd: 

"Come, gentlemen — behold the sweetest crature 21 
That e'er was modell'd by the hand of Nature. 



a Wood-Notes (Raleigh: Warren L. Pomeroy). I, 64-68. Here for the first time Brown 
is credited with the authorship of the poem. In a note Mrs. Clarke states erroneously that 
Brown died in 1795. After Wood-Notes, an unimportant but curious later reprinting was 
in the pamphlet "The Early Times and Men of Albemarle," An Oration Delivered at Eliza- 
beth City, N. C, on 7th of August, 1877, at Request of the "Albemarle Historical Society" 
[Elizabeth City? 1877] by John H. Wheeler (1806-1882), well-known writer on North 
Carolina history. Wheeler, who does not cite Brown as the author, introduces the poem 
with these words: "... I will mention, that in my researches I have found a veritable 
production, by a North Carolinian on a truly North Carolina subject which I trust may 
interest you, or at least relieve you from the dry details of facts and dates, which my 
subject has imposed upon you. There are fewer finer specimens of the mock heroic style, extant." 
Wheeler takes considerable liberties with the poem. He renames it "Africa and Carolina," 
substitutes "Pasquotank" for "Halifax" in line 5, and later "Tar Heel" for "Planter," 
"boid Pat" for "Master," "Carolina" for "Tarapen," and so on. Wheeler's attempt to 
modernize and localize the poem is rather unfortunate. In 1793 Brown would have felt 
uncomfortable in the presence of such unknown words as "Tar Heel" and "boid Pat." 

22 Spelled "Tarapen" in 1798 and 1795 printings, "Terrapen" in 1809; "Terrapin" in 1854. 
Occasional spellings, some punctuation, and all obvious typographical errors have been cor- 
rected to insure less difficult reading, but no attempt has been made to alter the eighteenth- 
century savor of the poem. The text printed here is, on the whole, a composite of the four 
existing versions. 

» Virgil. Aeneid, Book VI, line 86. 

** Eeclesiastes 9:11. 

1(16 Three North Carolina counties. 

88 Tully is. of course, Cicero the "eloquent." Stentor. in Homer's Iliad, is u herald with a 
very loud voice. 

87 The 1793 printing has "creature," but the 1854 form is used here because of its Hibernian 
flavor. 



146 The North Carolina Historical Review 

A spectacle to feast a curious eye on — - 
Come, gentlemen, walk up and see the Lion! 
All beasts conf ess'd his tyranny complete, 
And, trembling, crouch'd for mercy at his feet: 
No animal his peerless power withstood, 
He reign'd the Monarch of the Libyan wood. 
Sole sov'reign of the plain — no odds he begs 
Of any beast, that walks upon four legs." 

"Ah !" said a Planter, "in our modern age, 
To see the mightiest Monarch in a cage 
Is no new thing ! — but, by the immortal gods, 
If you declare this Lion asks no odds, 
An animal I'll bring, shall make him roar, 
And bathe that visage with his royal gore : — 
Make you the wager* — and behold what follows." 

* See Virgil, Eel. 7. 28 

"Done," said the Master, "for a hundred dollars." 
Off went the Planter for his beast, so keen, 
All wond'ring what the devil he could mean. 
At length he brought — the Lion to oppose, 
What seem'd "a fiddle that had feet and toes."* 

* See "A Tour in the United States," by one Smyth. — He thus describes 
the Tarapen: "I saw an animal crawl behind a rock, which I could compare 
to nothing but a fiddle with feet to it," — a book beneath criticism, and con- 
taining nothing to excite admiration but a long list of noble subscribers. 20 

"Here, boastful wretch, behold the Loggerhead, 80 
Who never from his adversary fled : 
Sole monarch of the Swamp— he fights his foe 
With certain skill, and conquers at a blow. 



28 This footnote of Brown's is found only in the 1793 printing. Eclogue VII describes a 
song-duel between the shepherds Cory don and Thyrsis. The reference, while allowing for a 
classic comparison with the lion-terrapin contest which follows, is little more than a sop to 
eighteenth-century display and erudition. Line 16 of Eclogue VII reads: 
et certamen erat, Corydon cum Thyrside, magnum. 

It is translated ". . . and the match — Corydon against Thyrsis — was a mighty one" by H. 
Rushton Fairclough in Virgil .(London: Heinemann, 1938), II, 49. 

20 Smyth, whose book was published in both London and Dublin in 1784, was a British 
soldier who, during the Revolution, traveled widely throughout the South. His Tour relates 
various hidings (one of them in the Dismal Swamp), captures, and escapes. John Randolph 
observed that the volume was filled with "calumny and falsehood." Library of Southern Litera- 
ture (1910), XV, 409. Brown must have agreed with Randolph. His footnote, however, is not 
accurately transcribed. Smyth writes: 

"Another time, whilst I was reading in a very solitary retired place among the rocks and 
trees, on hearing some little noise near me, I looked around, and just had the glimpse of a 
very strange and singular animal, such as I had never seen even any resemblance of before. 
It appeared to me more like a fiddle with feet, than any thing else that I know; the sight I 
had of it was just as it was running behind a rock. I sought there, and every where for it 
immediately, to no purpose, for I could not discover even a trace thereof remaining. 

"When I returned, I mentioned what I had seen; but no one, from my description, could 
inform me what animal it was." — John Ferdinand Dalziel Smyth, Tour in the United States 
of America . . . (Dublin: G. Perrin, 1784), I. Sl-32. 

Later on, Smyth writes: "There was another animal that particularly engaged my atten- 
tion, it being one of the same species that formerly I just had a glimpse of among the falls 
of James River, when it struck me with the strange idea of its resembling a fiddle with feet. 

"These animals are called here Tarapens, and are both of the land and water kinds. They 
are all however of the species of the turtle." Smyth, Tour, I, 223. 

30 A species of large marine turtle. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 147 

Shew him the Royal Lion, and you'll see 
He'll reverence kings like Prince Egalite." 31 

Now for the fight the combatants prepare — 
Now in the cage, hehold the advent'rous pair ! — 
The scales of vict'ry hanging in the skies, 
Were then discovered by poetic eyes, 
Wavering in doubt, unknowing to subside, 
For Carolina's boast or Af rick's pride. 

Wise Tarapen, beneath his coat of mail, 
Took in, secure, his head and legs and tail ; 
So when the wind blows hard, and thunders roll, 
And tempests shake the world from pole to pole, 
The cautious sailor sees the verging woe, 
Furls up his sails, and drops the yard below, 
Rides on the billow's top, sublime and vast, 
And scorns, serene, the elemental blast. 

Advancing firm, the Monarch of the Plain 
Lash'd his long tail and rear'd his mighty mane, 
Held out his princely paw — and, at one thwack, 
Extended Tarapen upon his back: 
But, free from pain, and without loss of gore, 
The Carolinian found his legs once more, 
Laugh'd at the Lion's strength, and mock'd his frown, 
And rose the stronger for the knocking down. 
'Twas thus of old — poetic history shows, 
Alcides fought, and thus Antaeus 32 rose. 

Hark! from the skies a rattling peal of thunder!* 

* See Homers Batrochamuomachia. 25 

The Gods and Goddesses look down with wonder : 
'Tis a Land-Turtle with the Lion strives! 
They never saw such fighting in their lives. 



81 Philippe, Due d'Qrleans, assumed such a name in 1792. He voted for the execution of 

Louis XVI. Brown's simile, in comparing the terrapin to Philippe, is a particularly happy one. 

83 In Greek mythology, the wrestler Antaeus was invincible as long as he touched the earth. 

When lifted from it, he renewed his strength (like the terrapin) by touching it again. 

Alcides (Hercules) conquered him by squeezing him to death in mid-air. 

88 In Batrachomyomachia (The Battle of the Frogs and Mice), a mock-heroic poem some- 
times attributed to Homer, Jove decrees victory for the frogs which are being defeated, first 
by sending down thunder, then by releasing an army of crabs which chase the mice away. 
Jove and all his gods and goddesses, in txue mock-heroic fashion, view the battle from the 
clouds and are as actively interested in the outcome as if it had been the finale of the 
Trojan war. 

"£l$ &p' e<pTj. KpoWSijs 8* £j3a\e ipoXoevra Kepavvov. 

irptJTa (lev ifipovTrjae, /xeyav S' eXeXc^ev "OXv/nrou, 

avrap eireiTa Kepavvbv, 5eip.aXeov Alos ottXov, 

^k' iiudivriffas. 6 5" ap eirraro xeipos Upclktos. 

See Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica (London: William Heinemann, 1914), 562. 
Samuel Wesley in 1726, translating the poem as The Iliad in a Nutshell: or Homer's Battle of 
Hie Frogs and Mice, renders the foregoing lines: 

She ended speech, and cloud-compelling Jove 

His three-fork'd thunder takes to part the fight. 

With goat-skin shield descending from above, 

Swift, silent, black, and terrible as Night. 

In sudden darkness either host he shrouds, 

Harsh thunders roll, and bluish lightnings blaze. 
LXVII 1.— 6. 

See Friedrich Wild, Die Batrachomyomachia in England (Wien und Leipzig: Wilhelm 
Braumuller, 1918), 64. 



148 The North Carolina Historical Review 

"Now, let the Carolinian win" — Jove said, 
And shook the reverend honours of his head. 
Whom Jupiter befriends must then prevail, 
So smiling Victory turns the dubious scale. 

Leo, unknowing whom he had in fight, 
Stoop' d down his head to take a nearer sight — - 
While Tarapen, firm, watchful, never scar'd, 
Directly seiz'd his highness by the beard : 
That is, so bit the Lion by the jowl, 
He could not disengage him for his soul. 
Close as a lover to his mistress dear, 
Close as the pillory to a rascal's ear, 
Close as a miser to a bag of joes, 34 
So close hung Tarapen to Leo's nose. 

Soon as the Master saw what came to pass, 
Not Sancho 35 griev'd so loudly for his Ass ; 
Not with more sorrow did the Trojan dames 
Bewail their Hector™ dear, and Troy in flames ; 
Nor trembling Frenchmen with more rage and fear, 
At the last feat of General Dumourier. m 
At length, to generous pity all inclin'd, 
With godlike sympathy within his mind, 
The great Hibernian ey'd the fray as cruel, 
In tears exclaiming, "0, my baste!' 68 my jewel !" 
Then, to the Planter turn'd — "Ah ! dearest honey, 
Release my Lion and receive your money." 
The subtle hero, liking well the truce, 
Receiv'd his bet and let the Lion loose : 
Then to the mighty conqueror said, "Yes ! go, 
Enjoy your freedom in the vale below; 
! may your bed of laurel leaves be made, 
And sweet magnolias blossom round your head ; 
Amphibious Victor ! Tarapen divine ! 
Yours be the glory, but the wager mine." 

COLUMBUS. 
Halifax, July, 1793. 

Though "The Lion and the Tarapen" was Brown's final poetic 
effort, it was not his last appearance in print. Considerable agita- 
tion in the public press concerning education in general and the 
establishment of the University of North Carolina in particular 
did not leave the Bostonian unmoved. His association with Wil- 



34 A "jo" is a double Johannes, American colonial coin. 

35 In Cervantes' Don Quixote. 
38 In Homer's Iliad. 

37 Charles Francois Dumouriez, French general. The June 19 and June 26 issues of T)ie 
X orth-Carolina Journal (Halifax) had leading articles on "French Affairs" with much at- 
tention on the activities of General Dumouriez. As a constant reader of that newspaper. 
Brown was fresh from a perusal of these accounts when he was composing "The Lion and 
the Tarapen." 

38 In the 1793 printing "beast." See above, p. 145, n. 27. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 149 

liam R. Davie, later known as "the Father of the University/ ' 
disposed Brown in favor of the immediate founding of the pro- 
posed institution; and on July 10, 1793, 39 the following letter 
appeared in the Journal over his pen name, "COLUMBUS" : 

Mr. Hodge 
That the proposed University of North-Carolina would operate 
[to] the happiness of the State, has been doubted, and the idea 
of its utility to the people at large has been combatted in your 
paper. It may appear extraordinary that the progress of learning 
should be opposed in a young Republican Country, since the 
experience of mankind, from the infancy of government to the 
present day, exhibits a clean illustration of this truth, That 
Knowledge must be the Guardian of Liberty. Whatever 
strengthens this sentiment, is important at this juncture, when 
subscriptions are circulating in various counties for the establish- 
ment of a fund for the promised seminary of learning. I, there- 
fore, send you the enclosed manuscript containing observations 
on Education, &c. written a year or two since— and though 
originally thrown together for a different purpose — for shewing 
the weans of Preventing Crimes — they are nevertheless appli- 
cable to the present period and subject, because drawn from from 
[sic'] the history of governments and of man. You are at liberty 
to publish, from the first Chapter, as many extracts as your 
judgment or convenience may direct, — and, also, to continue 
them in a series of papers, until you shall have selected the most 
interesting matters. 

Then followed a rather lengthy essay titled EDUCATION and 
geared to the purpose stated by Brown, showing education to be 
"the means of Preventing Crimes." The essay is embellished with 
classical allusions and sententious examples, but lacks the direct- 
ness and simplicity evinced in "The Lion and the Tarapen." We 
do not know whether other similar essays were published in ac- 
cordance with Brown's permission, for there are no extant copies 
of the Journal for the next three weeks. By the issue of August 
7 the essays had been either discontinued or concluded. 

Brown's stay in North Carolina was clearly a happy one at 
this time, and he was planning to establish himself permanently 
in the state. He had not become so serious in his life and study 
there, however, that he had abandoned his irresponsible and 
capricious nature. The best indication of his carefree tempera- 



88 In Chapel Hill on October 12, 1793 — three months after this letter — Davie laid the corner- 
stone of Old East, the first building at the University. 



150 The North Carolina Historical Review 

ment during these days is contained in a letter written him by 
Catharine Byles from Boston on August 5, 40 and addressed to him 
at Halifax. The annoyance of his "aunt" over the showing of her 
previous letter cannot be considered too seriously. 

My dear William, 

With peculiar pleasure I received your favor of April 17 th . But 
judge of my emotions on perusing the first paragraph! Flattered 
by my friend! Criticised by Strangers! — consciously humble in 
Myself! I must acknowledge I really found my situation was 
truly mortifying. If the few hasty lines I last wrote you had any 
merit, as you politely insinuate, I recollect none except the sin- 
cerity of its expressions which spontaneously flowed warm from 
the heart of the Writer. To say I am not solicitous to please when- 
ever I am forming a letter would be doing injustice to myself: 
but it is the partial friend only to whom I am writing in whose 
eyes I wish to appear pleasing; & as soon as my letter has an- 
swered this happy end of its existance I had much rathar in the 
quiet possession of its lawful proprietor, it should slide into 
oblivion, in humble imitation of the retired situation of its author, 
then after making the grand tour of North-Carolina & at length 
carelessly drawn from the pocket of one of the literary critical 
genius's of the age it should be employed, by way of substitute 
to the fragments of an out-of-date news-paper, in reviving the 
dying fumes of a tobacca-pipe. Perhaps you may think this candid 
declaration of mine originates from pride — be this as it may I am 
resolutely determined not to retract a syllable of what I have 
uttered, & I must further add that in the present case, while my 
poor fugitive letter has been banded about, & sampson-like mak- 
ing sport for the Philistines, it aff ordds me some consolation that 
its mistress unconscious of its misfortunes at the Moment, & 
personally unknown to the partys concerned, may still enjoy 
herself in her obscurity or in the dear society of the friends she 
loves. 

I am exceedingly gratified by your accounts of the affectionate 
attention you meet with from the inhabitants of Carolina, but 
can by no means reconcile myself to the idea of your settling at 
such a distance from Boston. To one of your profession, learned 
in the law, the case must appear plain that it is directly contrary 
to the inclination of your friends to have you seperated from 
them, that in equity of reason, that is [sic] in parity of judgment, 
the matter ought to be duely, deliberately, fully & maturely con- 
sidered : & to be plain with you, for as my Lord Bacon very wisely 
observes (or might have observed if he was a lawyer) lib. 4 pag. 
389 "honesty is the best policy" 41 — I say, I am of opinion that to 
consider an affair which in its self is not inconsiderable some- 
times shews considerable consideration: & therefore, may it 

40 Byles Papers, transcripts in the Masschusetts Historical Society, Boston. 

41 The proverb stems from Aesop. I have not been able to locate a repetition in Bacon. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 151 

please your honors & you gentlemen of the jury, such atrocious 
conduct in my clients antagonist apparently appearing in opposi- 
tion to his friends aforesaid consequently an infringement on 
Magna Charta et treasonabus against commonwealthum ; I can 
only regret, that destitute of the assistance of John-a-Rokes & 
John-a-Stiles 42 1, as a single disputant am not endowed with suit- 
able talents to plead in the cause & decide it to my mind : But — if 
you are resolute — I refer you to Blackstones Commentaries, Cook 
upon Lyttletons, 43 or any other learned volume on the subject. 
— Should you observe me at Court when you open your budget 
I beg you will not be disconcerted, for all attention & silent as 
midnight, I shall only exclaim — Yes ! — success attend you ! — 

Seriously my dear William I am greatly disapointed in not 
seeing you this summer, buoyed up as we have long been with 
the agreeable idea that you meant us a visit at least, if not to 
reside amongst us. You know not how much I have missed your 
friendly calls & chearful society; particularly so as I have not 
enjoyed my health for five months past, though I am now begin- 
ning to recruit a little & walk abroad : you promise however to 
write to me, frequently recollect that promise & reallize how 
much I am interested in every concern of yours. Your Aunt 
Mary 44 desires her love, says she often thinks of, & highly esteems 
you. May heaven direct bless & prosper you! is the retiring 
prayer, of 

Your sincerely affectionate Aunt 
C. Byles. 

But Brown was never to see his beloved "aunt" again. Per- 
haps he never read the jocose and pleasant letter which she had 
written him. During the last of August an epidemic, probably 
malaria, struck the area. In Halifax on Wednesday, September 
4, 1793, The North-Carolina Journal reported : "This town and 
neighborhood, has been, and still continues, exceedingly sickly- — 
scarcely a family have escaped the general calamity." The same 
issue listed among the dead Col. Herbert Haynes on Tuesday 
the 26th. 45 Likewise, "On Friday last, after a short illness, 
Charles Gilmour, Esq. Postmaster in this town. He has left a 
sorrowful widow and two young children to bewail his loss"; 
and in another column of the paper Gilmour's tavern already 
was advertised for rent. Finally beneath the Gilmour obituary 



43 Imaginary figures in a law case. "John Doe" would be the modern equivalent. See Sir 
Philip Sidney, An Apologie for Poetrie (1595). 

43 Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries (1765-1769) and Sir Edward Coke's four Insti- 
tutes, the first of which is known as Coke upon Littleton (1628), are basic volumes in the 
study of English law. The typescript has an obvious error, "look upon Lyttletons," which hais 
been corrected in the text. 

44 Catharine Byle's maiden sister. 

48 Actually the last Tuesday in August, 1793, came on the 27th of the month. 



152 The North Carolina Historical Review 

is this additional notice : "Also the same evening, Master JUNIUS 
Sitgreaves, eldest son of the Hon. Judge Sitgreaves." The num- 
ber of fatalities was indeed heavy in a village the size of Halifax. 
Even supposing that Brown had contracted the fever in Hali- 
fax, he was, at any rate, in Murfreesborough with his in-laws at 
the time of his death. 46 In fact, he died at least two days before 
the news reached his friend Abraham Hodge in Halifax. The 
shock of his death, the gentleness of his conduct during his ill- 
ness, and most of all, the great esteem in which he was held — 
all are illustrated in the flowery but genuinely sincere obituary 
which appeared in the Journal on September 11, evidently writ- 
ten by Hodge, who of course would most appreciate his friend's 
literary accomplishments. The length of the piece — a fullness 
not accorded to Postmaster and Tavern Keeper Charles Gilmour 
— as well as the elevated character of the sentiments, is highly 
complimentary and indicative of the regard Brown's friends had 
for him, particularly considering his comparatively brief resi- 
dence in the town. Under "Halifax News" appeared the follow- 
ing: 

DIED, after a short illness, at Murfreesborough, on the 2d 
instant, in the 27th year of his age, Mr. WILLIAM HILL 
BROWN, formerly of Boston, but lately of this town, where he 
was pursuing the study of the law. 

In this gentleman were united every virtue and qualification, 
which an uncommon genius and insatigable application to study 
had rendered into general usefulness : But that accomplishment, 
which of all others shone conspicuously in him, and was his most 
proper and peculiar characteristic, was that richness of fancy 
and copiousness of expression, which upon all occasions made 
him serviceable, not only in a social but civil capacity. In his 
writings, he was concise but comprehensive — sublime and elegant 
— a little satyrical at times, yet always pleasing and entertaining 
— In conversation, he was affable and polite — witty and winning : 
— It will be useless to illustrate his piety — the conduct of his life 
in general and his sickness in particular, has given sufficient 
testimony thereof — his loss is great both to his friends and 
country. 



« Arthur W. Brayley, in "The Real Author of 'The Power of Sympathy,' " 232, says 
Brown "went to Virginia to study law, but did not long survive a severe cold contracted 
while riding on horse back." 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 153 

"Of manners gentle, of affections mild; 47 
In wit, a man — simplicity, a child : 
With Attic salt, he season'd many a page, 
Form'd to delight at once and lash the age : 
A good companion and a faithful friend, 
Unblam'd thro' life, lamented in his End. 
Thus say the good and worthy, with a tear, 
Striking their pensive bosoms — BROWN lies here/' 48 

So died William Hill Brown in Murfreesborough, North Caro- 
lina. And where, one asks, is the grave of the first American 
novelist? Was he interred in a family cemetery in Murfrees- 
borough, perhaps beside the body of his sister Eliza Hinchborne ? 
Was he taken to Halifax? Surely, in 1793, he was not sent to Bos- 
ton for burial. But no one knows. We can hope only that some 
antiquarian will someday discover the spot and raise a stone 
over it. 

In fanciful mood Brown's friend, the poet Robert Treat Paine, 
wrote from his northern Boston home a lengthy eulogy. The last 
four stanzas are doubtlessly more accurate than he realized 
when he wrote them. 

Felt ye the gale?— It was the Sirock 49 blast, 

That spreads o'er burning climes Death's gelid sleep! 

Hear ye that groan ? 'tis dying Pollio's last ; 

And Friendship, Genius, Virtue, speechless, weep. 

"Oh, Pollio, Pollio!" — all Parnassus cries! — 
Their breasts the grief-delirious muses beat ; 

Torn from their brows, the withering garland dies ; 
And drooping groves this funeral dirge repeat : 

"Lamented Pollio, o'er thy sacred tomb. 

"The laurel-sprig we plant, the turf to shade : 
"Bathed bv our tears, its spreading boughs shall bloom. 
Till Fame's most verdant amaranths shall fade! 



a *t 



i7 These eight lines have as their basis "On Mr. Gay" by Alexander Pope. There are con- 
siderable variations and deletions from the original, with one entirely new line. 

48 This obituary, giving the Journal as its source, was reprinted in the Columbian Centinel 
October 2. In the Independent Chronicle (Boston) on September 13, the following notice 
appeared: "Died: Tn Virginia, Mr. William Hill Brown, son of Mr. Gawen Brown, of thiY 
place. A young man over whose Bier Genius and Philanthropy will long mourn." In Novem- 
ber, Catharine Byles wrote to Mrs. Sarah Holmes in London of her hope for "the arrival of 
my friend M r . W m . Brown from N. Carolina; but the death of that truly amiable young 
man on the 2 d Sep*, last has blasted the hope I had formed & given a recent wound to his 
distressed family who, aided by the lenient hand of time, were but just gradually recovering 
from one they received in JanT. occasioned by the death of his sister at the same place, 
Carolina. . . ." See above, p. 142, n. 12. 

*» The sirocco is a hot wind. Paine's allusion is to the oppressive southern air which carried 
the death- dealing fever to Brown. 



154 The North Carolina Historical Review 

"No towering marble marks thy humble dust, 
"Yet there shall oft our pensive choir repair ; 

"Thy modest grave can boast no sculptured bust, 
"Yet Nature stands a weeping statue there !" 50 

Even as this elegiac poem and the obituary notices were being 
printed and copied in various papers, Brown's "Aunt" Catherine 
Byles was making an effort to gather together his literary pro- 
ductions. On October 29 she wrote a letter 51 from Boston to Davie 
at Halifax, commending him for his treatment of her "nephew" 
and requesting the return of one of Brown's dramas. 

Sir, 

You are doubtless wondering at the novelty of a letter from a 
person utterly unknown to you : But will you permit a stranger 
who feels herself under obligation to offer you a few lines ? Your 
attention to my nephew M r . Brown, whose amiable character 
warmly attached him to his friends & to whose memory the tear 
must ever be sacred, demands the grateful acknowledgements 
of his connexions : In a letter I received from him a few weeks 
before he bid adieu to mortality he particularly mentions Col. 
Davie, & I feel a melancholly pleasure in thus conveying you my 
own thanks, and those of his family, for the notice with which 
you were pleased to favor him. Among the various productions 
of M r . Browns genius, one particular peice The Tragedy of Major 
Andre, 52 I greatly regret has escaped from me; May I sir re- 
quest the indulgence of again recovering it if it is in your hands ? 
or if it is not, & you are acquainted who is the present possessor, 
may I presume further by soliciting you would kindly procure 
it for me? Should you succeed, by placing it in the hands of M r 
Hitchborn, who will forward it to me, I should esteem it a very 
singular favor. 

I beg pardon sir for thus intruding on your goodness and 
subscribe myself, your obliged 

& obedient servant 
Catherine Byles. 

50 "A Monody, to the Memory of Mr. W. H. Brown," The Works, in Verse and Prose, of 
the Late Robert Treat Paine, Jun, Esq. (Boston: Belcher, 1812), 120-121. See above, p. 139, 
n. 3. 

51 Byles Papers, transcripts in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. 

52 Under the title "West- Point Preserved or the Treason of Arnold," this play was given 
twenty-seven performances at the Hay market Theatre, Boston, beginning in April, 1797. 
Kunitz and Haycraft, American Authors, 1600-1900, 108. The North-Carolina Journal (Hali- 
fax) of June 5, 1797, printed the "EPILOGUE to 'West-Point Preserved.' Written by 
William Brown, dec. formerly a Student of Law in this town." Here are the last four lines: 

If any faults appear, those faults excuse 

In the first offspring of a native muse — 

West Point preserved from ruin, saved your nation; 

Then save, O save! in me — the poet's reputation. 

Brown's patriotic drama, in condemning Andre's actions, is in contrast with the sympathetic 
feeling for Andre exhibited by the royalist grandnephew of Brown's "Aunt" Catharine 
Byles, Dr. William Almon, of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Almon "possessed the walking stick of 
Major Andr6, whom Washington hanged as a spy." See "The Life and Work of the late 
Senator Almon," transcripts in Dr. Raymond's Scrapbook (Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia), 3. The family relationships are discussed in 
Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, The Church of England in Nova Scotia and the Tory 
Clergy of the Revolution (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1891). 246. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 155 

The play was returned, and with it Brown's ties with North 
Carolina came to an end. His sojourn in the state had not been 
an unproductive one from a literary point of view. It has been 
conjectured that he wrote Ira and Isabella during his stay in 
the state: 53 and since "West-Point Preserved" was recovered 
from Davie, to whom it evidently had been given for reading 
and criticism, perhaps that drama too was composed or at least 
completed in North Carolina. Even without these two possible 
works, three poems — one of them among the best of his in- 
ventions — were written during this period and thereafter were 
published in the local press. 

It is, of course, idle to speculate what he might have produced 
if he had lived longer and had remained in North Carolina. Cer- 
tainly he had appreciative readers and admiring friends and 
even a patronizing printer to publish his longer compositions. 54 
In the years following 1793 he might have assumed the literary 
leadership of the section; for there was little cultural activity 
in the region and no presiding genius around whom might rally 
those who were interested in such activity. It remains only to 
say that the first American novelist, "a successful poet, drama- 
tist, and essayist of the time," 55 came to live in North Carolina, 
that he was happy in the prospects of his new home, and that an 
early death cut short the life of one who might have become an 
influential literary figure in the region where he had expressed 
a desire to settle permanently. 



88 Jessie Mae Brooks, North Carolina Fiction, 1795-1861. A Checklist (Duke University: 
unpublished master's thesis, 1942), 7. No authority for the conjecture is cited. 

54 There is no evidence that Brown's North Carolina confreres knew him to be the first 
American novelist. His connection with The Power of Sympathy was not established for over 
a hundred years after his death. Milton Ellis, "The Author of the First American Novel," 
American Literature, IV (January, 1933), 356-368. 

86 Alexander Cowie, The Rise of the American Novel (American Book Company, 1948), 
10. There is a discussion of The Power of Sympathy in this volume, 9-12. 



THE STATE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

1900-1950 

By William Burlie Brown 

The year 1900 is a significant one in the history of North Car- 
olina. It marks the beginning of an intellectual development in 
the state that one of its historians has called the "Dawn of 
Culture" after the "Twilight" of Reconstruction and its immedi- 
ate aftermath. 1 In that year Charles B. Aycock was elected gov- 
ernor and a tremendous revival of education was inaugurated. 
In the same year this "renaissance" produced a society that has 
come to be recognized as the parent of cultural organizations 
within North Carolina — The State Literary and Historical As- 
sociation. 

Prior to 1900 a number of societies devoted to the study of 
state history were in existence but they were local in character, 
usually devoted to the perpetuation of the traditions of a par- 
ticular historic spot. The Guilford Battleground Association and 
the Moored Creek Association were of this type. Others, like the 
Wachovia Historical Society, were limited by their interest in a 
particular group or institution. Colleges within the state sponsor- 
ed their own societies — The Historical Society of North Carolina 
for the University at Chapel Hill and The Historical Society of 
Trinity College. There was no one organization devoted to the 
literature and history of North Carolina drawing its members 
from all interested citizens of the state. Thus the chief motiva- 
tion behind the founding of the State Literary and Historical 
Association was the belief that these local organizations would 
never be able "to organize the literary talent of the State" or 
get together to coordinate their activities. Therefore they would 
never be able to present a united front in spurring on literary 
and historical activity by native North Carolinians to combat 
both the embarrassment of continued ignorance and the exploita- 
tion of the state by "alien" writers. 2 

On the evening of September 18, 1900, a group of citizens "met 
by invitation in the auditorium of the agricultural building to 



» Archibald Henderson, The Old North State and the New, II, 750. 

a This is clearly expressed in a newspaper article by W. J. Peele, News and Observer 
(Raleisrh), October 23. 1900. 

[156] 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 157 

consider the question of forming an organization to stimulate 
literary and historical activity in North Carolina." The follow- 
ing are known to have been present : Walter Clark, Miss Rebecca 
Cameron, Theophilus H. Hill, D. H. Hill, Rev. T. N. Ivey, Thomas 
S. Kenan, S. L. Patterson, Fred L. Merritt, W. J. Peele, H. J. 
Stockard, George T. Winston, and Mrs. John Van Landingham. 
They agreed to form a society under the name of The State 
Literary and Historical Association and appointed a committee 
to issue a call for a general meeting. 3 This committee drafted 
a notice setting forth the purposes of the Association and in- 
viting all interested parties to attend an organization meeting. 
This notice appeared in several of the state newspapers on Sep- 
tember 23, 1900. 4 

On October 23, 1900, the organization meeting was held in the 
Music Hall of the Olivia Raney Library in Raleigh. The body ap- 
proved a constitution that had been previously drafted by a 
committee under the chairmanship of W. J. Peele. 5 Walter Clark 
was elected president and Alex. J. Feild corresponding secretary. 
The meeting immediately settled down to business, heard several 
addresses on ways and means of accomplishing their purposes, 
and passed several resolutions designed to stimulate public in- 
terest in North Carolina history. 6 Press reaction was immediately 
favorable and the Association was launched amid a hail of en- 
thusiastic press notices. 7 

This year the Association celebrates its fiftieth year of un- 
interrupted existence. What might be called the "external fea- 
tures" of the Association — its annual sessions, its officers, its 
membership — have not been altered in any fundamental way 
in its fifty-year history. By and large, these features are the 
facade of the Association, forming the aspect of the organization 
that is constantly in the eye of the public. They are, of course, 
a vital part of the organization, but no amount of detailed 
scrutiny of these would yield a complete picture of the Associa- 



8 Edward P. Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association." in W. J. Peele (ed.). 
Literary and Historical Activities in North Carolina, 1900-1905, 1-2. 

*■ News and Observer (Raleigh), Sept. 23, 1900: copied in FayettevilJe Observer, Sep. 24, 
1900; Charlotte Daily Observer, September 26, 1900. 

5 MS. Minutes 1900-1910, 5. (The Association's unpublished records are in the State De- 
partment of Archives and History, Raleigh.) Full text of 1900 constitution is in Moses, "The 
State Literary and Historical Association," 3-6. 

6 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 3-1L 

''News and Observer (Raleigh), Oct. 24, 1900; New Bern Daily Journal, Oct. 24, 1900; 
Fayetteville Observer, Oct. 24, 1900; Charlotte Daily Observer, Oct. 24, 1900. 



158 The North Carolina Historical Review 

tion's history. To weigh the organization's accomplishments, it 
will be necessary to go behind the distinguished names that grace 
its roster of members and its succession of officers, and the 
brilliance of its annual programs to the long and often difficult 
struggles of its officers and committees who worked for the 
realization of the society's objectives many days of the year 
and with an anonymity that has often become irritating to their 
historian. 

The most conspicuous of these features that we have called 
"external" is the annual session. It has grown from a modest 
assembly of local citizens to discuss ways and means of advancing 
the cause of literature and history in their state to a virtual con- 
gress of specialized societies representing almost all of the cul- 
tural activities within North Carolina and climaxed by a series 
of distinguished addresses delivered by some of the most promi- 
nent men in the country. The early annual sessions were gen- 
erally held during Fair Week. Not until 1909 was this practice 
abandoned. 8 From 1909 to 1919 the date of the annual session 
varied considerably, in order to accommodate the principal 
speaker chosen for each year. Since 1920 the present practice of 
meeting during the first week of December has been adhered 
to with few exceptions. 9 The Association failed to hold an annual 
session only once. This was occasioned by an epidemic of in- 
fluenza in 1918. 10 

Raleigh has been the scene of its annual meetings every year 
since the Association's founding. On numerous occasions during 
the early years of its history, the Association was invited to meet 
at other cities in the state, but they were seriously tempted only 
once. In 1911 the Executive Committee worked a bit of strategy 
on Raleigh. They refused to decide definitely on a meeting place. 
Their purpose comes out in several letters from the Association's 
correspondence. In general it seems to have been a feeling that 
the eagerness of other cities to have the Association's annual 
sessions pointed up the indifference of a Raleigh that had come 



9 The third annual session was delayed until January 23, 1903, and the fourth until Novem- 
ber 2, 1903. 

9 The twenty-eiphth annual session was held on November 22-23, 1928; the twenty-ninth on 
October 31-November 1, 1929, and the fortv-fifth on December 14, 1945. 

10 No session was held in 1902 nor in 1910, but these represent late sessions rather than a 
failure to hold a session. Thus the third annual session was held on January 23, 1903, and 
the eleventh on January 12, 1911. The latter was delayed purposely to coincide with the 
presentation to the state of a bust of Matt. W. Ransom. See Minutes of Executive Committee 
Meeting, Auirust 2, 1910, MS. Minutes 1900-1910, 7. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Anmual Session 159 

to take this event for granted. It seemed an excellent oportunfty, 
to reawaken enthusiasm in Raleigh by threatening to change 
the meeting place. Clarence Poe conducted a behind-the-scenes 
campaign to gauge Raleigh's reaction and it turned out very 
successfully. 11 

The principal feature of the annual sessions has been the 
addresses. Until 1907 these consisted entirely of papers given 
by the members of the Association. In 1907 the practice was be- 
gun of inviting a prominent personage from outside of North 
Carolina to give the principal address. Since this beginning at 
the eighth annual session with Hannis Taylor, writer and one- 
time Minister to Spain, as the guest speaker, the Association 
has presented some of the ablest and most prominent men in this 
country and from abroad. Literary men such as Thomas Nelson 
Page, Edwin Markham, John Erskine, and Henry Seidel Canby ; 
historians including William A. Dunning, John Spencer Bassett, 
William E. Dodd, and Ulrich B. Phillips; political figures such 
as Henry Cabot Lodge and William Howard Taft; and foreign 
ambassadors Lord James Bryce, Count Rene Doynel de Saint- 
Quentin, J. J. Jusserand, and Romulo S. Naon. 

In 1911 the Association inaugurated a feature that for a time 
came to hold its place as a highlight of the annual meeting, sec- 
ond in interest only to the principal speaker. This was the presen- 
tation of an address by a North Carolinian who had left the 
state and had achieved outstanding recognition in his profession. 
C. Alphonso Smith delivered the first of these addresses at the 
twelth annual session. 12 

These special events did not crowd the presentation of papers 
by members out of the picture, however, for the sessions were 
lengthened to accommodate additional features. 13 Among these 
contributions by members, the annual presidential address has 
occupied an important place on the program. The subjects em- 
braced in the addresses by members have varied greatly over 



u Clarence Poe to R. D. W. Connor, March 17, 1911: Poe to Executive Committee, May 8, 
1911; [Connor?l to Poe, May 6, 1911. All are in the unpublished correspondence of the State 
Literary and Historical Association, hereinafter referred to as Correspondence. 

13 Although Hannis Taylor, mentioned above, was an ex-North Carolinian this seems to 
have been a chance occurence. Indeed, the first mention of this feature as a definite policy 
occurs in the proceedings of the thirteenth annual session. Proceedings of the State Literary 
and Historical Association, published as Bulletin 12, Publications of the North Carolina 
Historical Commission (hereinafter cited as Proceedings, thirteenth session). 

13 In 1907 they were increased to three — morning, afternoon and evening. In 1911 the 
practice of meeting on two days instead of one was begun. 



MO The -North Carolina Historical Review 

the years. In the early years the majority of the papers bore 
specifically on projects the Association was currently sponsoring 
— improvement of library facilities, promotion of county history, 
memorials, and many others. There has always been a large num- 
ber of papers of a historical and biographical nature relative to 
North Carolina. The proportion of papers on literary subjects has 
not been as high. 

Reports of committees and resolutions by the body have come 
to occupy less importance in the annual sessions. Since 1911 
they have been relegated to a special session of the meeting, us- 
ually occupying part of the morning session. The reading of a 
report on the year's harvest of books by North Carolinians began 
in 1902. Until 1935 it took the form of an annotated bibliography. 
Since then it has been given in the form of a review of selected 
works published during the preceeding year. 

Since 1904, with the exception of the period 1923-1930, the 
Association has made the annual presentation of an award for 
outstanding literary achievement by a North Carolinian one 
of the principal attractions of its meetings. 

A group of organizations have grown up around the Associa- 
tion, some sponsored directly by it and some arising independent- 
ly, but for the most part allying themselves with the Association 
in its annual session. The practice generally followed has been 
for the organization to be invited to hold its annual meeting in 
Raleigh during the week of the Association's annual session. In 
this fashion the North Carolina Folklore Society began meeting 
with the Association in 1913, the North Carolina State Art 
Society in 1926, the Archaeological Society of North Carolina 
and the North Carolina Society for the Preservation of Antiqui- 
ties in 1939, and the North Carolina Society of County Historians 
in 1947. From time to time their number has been augmented 
by other organizations which kept up the practice for a short 
time only. 

This practice of meeting along with other organizations de- 
rives largely from the policy suggested by R. D. W. Connor in a 
paper on the year's historical activities delivered before the 



Papers from the P'iftieth Annual Session 161 

Association in 1908. 14 Connor's plan provided that the Literary 
and Historical Association take over the job of coordinating the 
various efforts of the cultural and patriotic societies within the 
state by persuading them to meet at the same time and place but 
separately, remaining distinct organizations. One final grand 
session together under the aegis of the Association was to provide 
the link. The Association has clung to this policy even in the 
case of organizations that it has directly sponsored. Rather than 
foster subgroups within its own organization, it has encouraged 
its members who had a special interest to form an independent 
society and draw its members both from within and without the 
Association. In this way the North Carolina State Art Society 
was formed in 1924 15 and the North Carolina Society for the 
Preservation of Antiquities in 1938. 16 

The office of president of the Association has been ably filled 
by a long procession of distinquished citizens. The Association 
has drawn its presidents from men active in many fields — 
prominent members of the Bar, college presidents and faculty 
members, newspaper editors, and businessmen. In the early years 
the lawyers predominated; since about 1910 the academic pro- 
fession has been most often in the chair. Four of the Association's 
seven secretaries have been honored with the presidency. 17 In 
1929 the Association conferred its first honorary presidency on 
Samuel A'Court Ashe as "dean of North Carolina Historians." 18 
Although the Association's constitution was silent on the matter 
of the eligibility of the president to succeed himself, a one-term 
precedent has been established and adhered to with but one ex- 
ception. President James Sprunt was prevailed upon to continue 
in office for a second year in 1918 when the influenza epidemic 
prevented an annual session. 

As is the case with most organizations of this type, the office 
of secretary is the one position that demands a great deal of the 



14 R. D. W. Connor, "Historical Activities in North Carolina during the Past Year," 
Minutes of ninth session, 17. (From 1905 to 1909 the proceedings were published as un- 
numbered pamphlets of the North Carolina Historical Commission under the title of Minutes 
of the State Literary and Historical Association.) 

15 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Revie-w, II (1925), 112 for formation; V 
(1928), 135 for chartering. 

w "Historical News," North Carolina Historical. Review, XVI (1939). 101 for formation: 
XVII (1940). 82-83 for chartering. 

17 R. D. W. Connor. 1911-1912: Clarence Poe. 1914-1915; A. R. Newsome, 1938-1939; and 
R. B. House, 1945-1946. 

18 A. R. Newsome to S. A. Ashe, November 14, 1929, Correspondence. 



162 The North Carolina Historical Review 

incumbent's time. He is, as is recognized, the nerve center of 
the organization, is responsible for the practical details of pro- 
moting the Association's projects and policies, and has been also 
an originator of many of its projects. The constitution originally 
provided for a division of labor between a secretary-treasurer 
and a corresponding secretary. At one of the earliest Executive 
Committee meetings on November 1, 1900, D. H. Hill resigned 
as secretary-treasurer and a "treasurer" was appointed. All the 
other duties were lumped together and given to Alex. J. Feild as 
"secretary." 19 No attempt was made to revise the constitution 
accordingly until 1922. 20 The office of secretary has been held 
by only seven men since 1900. The first was Alex. J. Feild, who 
continued in office until 1902. George S. Frap served only one 
term, 1902-1903. In 1903 Clarence Poe began a term that ended 
in 1911. R. D. W. Connor served from 1912 to 1919 ; R. B. House 
from 1920 to 1925; A. R. Newsome from 1926 to 1935. Since 
1935 the present incumbent, Christopher Crittenden, has estab- 
lished a record run of sixteen years. 21 Since the assumption of 
the duties of secretary by R. D. W. Connor in 1912, it has so 
happened that the secretary of the Historical Commission (now 
the director of the Department of Archives and History) has 
always served as secretary of the Association, 

The membership growth of the organization has not been a 
steady one. At the end of its first year it could boast of 150 
members ; two years later this had declined to 73. The next year 
it was back up to 127. Although the rise and fall in membership 
has not been quite as drastic in subsequent years, it has con- 
tinued to exhibit a marked fluctuation. 22 In 1950 the membership 
stands at 443. The very low cost of membership in the Associa- 
tion permits almost anyone who wishes to become a member. 
The only qualification that it has placed on membership is that 
the applicant be interested in the work of the Association 23 and 
(in the revised constitution of 1948) that the prospective mem- 



18 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting, November 1, 1900, MS. Minutes, 1900-1910. 

30 Text of constitution as revised in Proceedings, twenty-second session, 11-12. 

21 Mrs. Ernest A. Branch served as acting secretary in 1946-1947 during the temporary 
absence of Crittenden. Minutes of the forty-sixth session, MS. Minutes, 1938-1948. 

33 During the period 1905-1922 a chart showing the membership totals for each year since 
1900 appeared in the published Minutes and Proceedings. Since the discontinuance of the 
full publication of the Association's proceedings, this information appears in published form 
only in the list of members appended to the yearly programs. 

23 The 1900 constitution added the further restriction of "white resident." Moses, "The 
State Literary and Historical Association," 6. The 1922 constitution removed this restriction. 
Proceedings, twenty-second session, 11-12. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 163 

ber's application be approved by the Executive Committee. The 
Association elected its first honorary member in 1907 — James 
Bryce. 24 It allowed this practice to languish in the ensuing years. 
In 1920 it revived the plans for conferring honorary member- 
ships and laid plans for life memberships. 25 

In 1900 the Association wrote into its constitution the follow- 
ing purposes for its existence : 

The purposes of this Association shall be the collection, preser- 
vation, production, and dissemination of our State literature 
and history ; the encouragement of public and school libraries ; 
the establishment of an historical museum ; the inculcation of a 
literary spirit among our people ; the correction of printed mis- 
representations concerning North Carolina, and the engendering 
of an intelligent, healthy State pride in the rising generation. 26 

When a revision of the constitution was made in 1922, these pur- 
poses were left unchanged. 27 Not until 1948, when the constitu- 
tion was again revised, did these objectives undergo any altera- 
tion. 

Having set up these objectives as a goal toward which its 
activities should be directed and having persisted in their pursuit 
for forty-eight years, the Association has made it evident that 
it is an organization dedicated to an active program and that its 
real history does not lie solely in the long procession of its an- 
nual sessions but in its record of success and failure in the 
achievement of these purposes. Accordingly one of the chief pur- 
poses of this paper is to set up a "balance sheet" and to attempt 
to assess what in relation to its stated objectives has accrued 
to the credit of the Association during the fifty years of its ex- 
istence. 

At the outset, however, we are confronted with a very fortun- 
ate difficulty. There are many entries to be made on the credit 
side but there is no way of assessing the liabilities. It is obviously 
futile to speculate about what the Association might have ac- 
complished and didn't. It is only somewhat less satisfactory to 
attempt to compare the Association's accomplishments with those 
of similar societies. Besides the fact that there is no large amount 



24 Minutes of Executive Committee, February 8, 1907, MS. Minutes. 1900-1917. 36. 

23 Proceedings, twentieth session, 10. 

28 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 3-4. 

27 Proceedings, twenty-second session, 11-12. 



164 The North Carolina Historical Review 

of data available on this subject, the most obvious reason for the 
impracticality of this scheme lies in the word "similar." The 
Literary and Historical Association is in many ways unique. 
There are many older historical societies that have had a much 
longer time to carry on many excellent projects, and quite a few 
younger ones that have had less opportunity. There are an endless 
number of factors besides age, such as endowment, membership, 
and state support to mention but a few, that render any com- 
parison highly dangerous. Indeed, the purposes for which these 
societies are organized and the general character of their organi- 
zation and direction afford almost no satisfactory basis of com- 
parison, each to each. Finally, there remains the alternative of 
listing the specific instances in which the Association's projects 
have ended in failure. There are two objections to this alterna- 
tive. In the first place, the Association has been very reasonable 
in its demands on the legislature, the public, and its members. 
It has not envisioned grandiose schemes and sponsored projects 
that were beyond the realm of probable achievement. Therefore 
the list of failures is almost negligible. Secondly, in the few in- 
stances in which ambition has soared, the Association has tena- 
ciously refused to relinquish the project. Thus projects that have 
met temporary frustration are revived again and again, and at 
present writing some are still hanging in the fire. All that can 
be done is to credit the Association with what it has done on these 
projects and to note their state of incompleteness. 

In attempting to record the accomplishments of the Associa- 
tion under the purposes set forth in the original constitution, the 
activities and projects sponsored by the organization have been 
grouped under the individual objectives there listed rather than 
chronologically. This scheme of organization seems to make the 
process of measuring the Association's achievement in terms of 
its stated purposes more graphic. There will be many instances 
in which the listing of a project under one purpose rather than 
another may be quarreled with, so inseparable are some of the 
stated objectives. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 165 

The Collection, Preservation, Production, and 
Dissemination of State Literature and History 

Although the collection of historical material was the first-men- 
tioned objective of the Association, it has never made any direct 
attempt to carry out this purpose. The realization came early 
that the collection and preservation of historical material on 
any appreciable scale is a costly undertaking impossible for an 
organization solely supported by very modest membership dues. 
The only instance that has come to light in which the Associa- 
tion itself has attempted actually to collect material occurred in 
1905 when the Association learned of the existence of a "valu- 
able paper bearing on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independ- 
ence" and resolved to secure it "if possible." 28 Perhaps the temp- 
tation was too great to resist. The wise decision to confine their 
efforts in this direction to the encouragement of collection and 
preservation through repeated exhortations to the public to 
preserve historical material, through emphasizing its importance 
in addresses and discussions in its annual sessions, and through 
the sponsorship of independent organizations for this purpose 
has led by indirection to achievements under this objective that 
far surpass much that the Association has achieved directly. 

If the Association had accomplished nothing else, its sponsor- 
ship of legislation that created the North Carolina Historical 
Commission would have justified its claim to have served North 
Carolina well. The resolution to petition the legislature for the 
creation of the Commission was passed at the third annual ses- 
sion in January, 1903, 29 and the bill drafted by a committee of the 
Association was enacted as law the same year. 30 Since its creation 
the work of the Commission (now the State Department of 
Archives and History) in the collection and preservation of 
historical materials has been outstanding and is too well known 
to need elaboration here. 

An excellent illustration of the tenacity of the Association 
when it undertakes an ambitious project is the county history 
project. The efforts of the Association to arouse interest in the 
preservation of county history have met with varying degrees of 



28 Minutes, sixth session, 32. 

29 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 21. 
80 Public Lawn of 1903, ch. 767. 



166 The North Carolina Historical Review 

success from 1904 to the present. There have been periods when 
the project has lain dormant but it has never died. Under the 
leadership of President C. Alphonso Smith and Secretary Clar- 
ence Poe, the Association inaugurated the first phase of the move- 
ment in 1904. 31 Their object was to publish a plan for the organi- 
zation of clubs in the various counties of the state for the study 
of the history of each county. They intended to collect the papers 
read at these club meetings and to publish the best ones. Ap- 
parently very little came of this first effort, although there is 
evidence that at least one such club was formed in 1906. 32 In- 
terest in these local societies was revived in 1907 when the 
organization of local literary and historical societies was placed 
in the hands of Edward Mims, 33 and again in 1909 when J. G. 
de Roulhac Hamilton was appointed to head a committee on or- 
ganizing local societies. 34 One indication of at least partial success 
was the adoption of a plan in 1911 allowing the local societies 
to affiliate with the State Literary and Historical Association. 35 
In 1912 the Association kept the movement alive by devoting a 
large part of its annual session to papers emphasizing the his- 
torical value of county records. 36 There was a revival of plans 
for the publication of a series of county histories in 1913. Unlike 
the 1904 plan, this one called for a central control to be vested in 
a committee of editors. 37 At the annual session in 1914 the Asso- 
ciation decided to enlist the aid of the college history departments 
in its publication scheme. This first phase of the county history 
movement reached its climax that year when a conference on 
county history occupied a large share of the annual meeting. A 
series of papers on methods and technique in writing county 
history and plans for pushing this writing stimulated a general 



81 Minutes of fifth annual session, MS. Minutes, 1900-1910, 27. The Association was not a 
pioneer in the movement to preserve county history. A. R. Newsome in an address hefore 
a conference on county history held in connection with the twenty-seventh annual session 
outlined the early history of the efforts to secure county histories. He stated that the His- 
torical Commission possessed the original manuscript accounts of thirteen counties and one 
town, all dated between 1810 and 1812, which were written by informed local citizens in 
response to a circular letter from the publisher of the Star requesting the preparation of a 
sketch of each county for publication in the Star. He also recounted the efforts of D. L. 
Swain in 1857 to persuade each county to have a historical sketch of the county prepared. 
There were four competent county histories published in the period 1881-1898. (From un- 
published address in the possession of A. R. Newsome, Department of History, University 
of North Carolina.) 

88 Minutes, seventh session, 5-7. 

88 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting, November 23, 1907, MS. Minutes, 1900-1917, 57. 

84 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting. November 27, 1909, MS. Minutes, 1900-1917, 65. 

85 Proceedings, eleventh session, 13. 

3fl Proceedings, thirteenth session, passim. 

1,7 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting, December 20, 1913, MS. Minutes, 1900-1917, 93. 



Papers prom the Fiftieth Annual Session 167 

discussion. A general enthusiasm was aroused and the members 
resolved to memorialize the General Assembly for an appropria- 
tion to enable the Historical Commission to advise with county 
officials on the care and preservation of county records. 38 Then 
rather mysteriously this ardor seems to have evaporated without 
a trace. The record reveals but a single effort after 1914. In May, 
1915, Archibald Henderson wrote enthusistically to Secretary 
Connor about getting together a committee "to outline steps for 
the preparation of a bulletin on county archives and county his- 
tory." 39 Connor's reply indicating the failure of his own efforts 
even to assemble the committee marks the end of this first phase 
of the movement. 40 During this first phase at least ten book- 
length county histories and four shorter works on local history 
were produced. 41 It is, of course, impossible to credit these works 
directly to the Association's project but they are indicative of an 
aroused interest in county history which was, in the last analysis, 
the end toward which the project was directed. 

A second phase of the county history movement opened in 1927. 
It differed from the early phase in that it was an attempt to 
charge the responsibility for promoting county history to a par- 
ticular individual in each county rather than to approach the 
problem through local historical societies. This project originated 
with the Historical Commission early in 1927 under the secre- 
taryship of A. R. Newsome, who was then secretary of the Asso- 
ciation. The active support of President Josephus Daniels and 
the Association was enlisted and a portion of the annual session 
was devoted to a conference on county history. Thirty-five coun- 
ties were represented at the conference by their county his- 
torians. 42 At this conference Mr. Newsome presented a paper 
outlining the project which during the past six months had re- 
sulted in the appointment of a county historian by each of the 



38 Proceedings, fifteenth session, 7. 

89 Henderson to Connor, May 4, 1915, Correspondence. 

w Connor to Henderson, May 19, 1915, Correspondence. 

a Full length books: B. B. Winborne, Colonial and State Political. History of Hertford 
County (1906); W. C. Allen, Centennial History of Haywood County (1908); A. M. Waddell, 
History of New Hanover County, 1723-1800 (1909); H. T. King, Sketches of Pitt County 
(1911); J. P. Arthur, History of Watauga County (1915); W. S. Boyce, Economic and 
Social History of Chowan County, 1880-1915 (1917); W. C. Allen, Halifax County (1918); 
J. K. Turner and J. L. Bridgers, History of Edgecombe County (1920); Mrs. H. S. Chamber- 
lain, History of Wake County (1922); and J. C. Leonard. Centennial History of Davidson 
County (1927). The shorter pieces have been published as pamphlets and articles: J. P. 
Arthur, Western North Carolina (1914); James Sprunt, Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 
1660-1916 (1916); Mrs. L. W. Montgomery, Sketches of Old Warrenton (1924); and W. K. 
Boyd, Story of Durham (1925). Newsome, address to conference on county history, 1927. 

42 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, V (1928), 132. 



168 The North Carolina Historical Review 

boards of education in sixty-six counties, sketching the history 
of the local history movement in the state and discussing the 
specific opportunities and problems of the county historians and 
suggesting ways and means to accomplish the purposes for which 
they were designated. 43 Under this new stimulus the county his- 
tory movement revived for a time. County historians began to 
promote county historical societies. 44 The writing of county his- 
tory revived. During this second phase thirteen book-length 
county histories were published. 45 

The third and latest phase of the movement came about in- 
dependently of the Association. It is included because, while it 
does not represent a direct achievement of the Association, it does 
represent the latest development of a movement that represents 
forty-six years of intermittent labor on the part of the society. 
On December 26, 1941, sixteen local historians from ten counties 
met in Chapel Hill and formed the North Carolina Society of 
County Historians. 46 Five years later they were invited to meet 
with the Association 47 and since 1947 they have usually formed 
one of the allied societies participating in the annual Association 
meetings. 

It would be a mistake to regard the county history movement 
as a completed project; very probably it will never be really 
completed. None of the schemes for directing the movement have 
ever been fully realized. But the results have been far from dis- 
couraging. 

While the Association was fostering the collection of state 
and county historical materials, urging upon individuals and 
local administrations the grave danger of exposing the history 
of two centuries to the ever present hazard of fires in homes and 
county courthouses, it found itself in the position of having no 



* 3 Newsome, address to conference on county history, passim. 

4i Among: the earliest mentioned are the Warren County Historical Association, September 
21, 1928: Wake County, October 8, 1928; and Franklin County, October 26, 1928. "Historical 
News," North Carolina Historical Review, VI (1929), 119-121. 

« Of these, four were by the original county historians appointed in 1927. J. C. Leonard, 
Centennial History of Davidson County (1927); F. A. Sondley, A History of Buncombe 
County (1930); C. W. Griffin, History of Old Tryon and, Rutherford County (1937): and Mrs. 
M. S. Puett, History of Gaston County (1939). The others are: J. W. Harden, Economic and 
Social History of Alamance County (1928); E. G. Winslow, History of Perquimans County 
(1931); W. C. Allen, Annals of Haywood County (1935); J. G. Hollingsworth. History of 
Surry County (1935): J. H. Separk, Gastonia and Gaston County (1936); W. L. Sherrill, 
Annals of Lincoln County (1937): W. L. DeRossett, Pictorial and Historical New Hanover 
County and Wilmington, (1938): R. C. Lawrence. The State of Robeson (1939): and L. H. 
Bonner, Colonial, Bath and the Pamlico Section (1939). 

49 Phillips Russell to C. C. Crittenden, December 29, 1941, Correspondence. 

47 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, XXIV (1946). 128. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 169 

safer place to advise for storage. Accordingly, there was begun 
a vigorous campaign to induce the legislature to erect a fireproof 
building to house the material collected by the Commission along 
with the State Library. At the outset in 1904 they urged this 
building project as a "Hall of Records and History." 48 In the 
ensuing years of the campaign, it came to be known as simply 
"a fire-proof state library." Hardly a year passed between 1904 
and 1910 when the Association failed to petition the legislature 
for this building and to censure it for failing to provide for it 
the previous year. Finally in 1911 the General Assembly appro- 
priatd $250,000 to erect the building. 49 

It was quite a while longer before the Association took official 
cognizance of the fact that another kind of historical material 
was in imminent danger of destruction from neglect. Not until 
1938 did the Association become interested in the preservation of 
the state's historic architecture. At the annual session a com- 
mittee was appointed to form a society for the preservation of 
North Carolina antiquities. 50 The organization was chartered 
October 4, 1939, under the name of "The North Carolina Society 
for the Preservation of Antiquities." 51 The organization then, as 
is usual with the societies that are progeny of the Association, 
began to function independently, enlisting the aid and interest 
of public-spirited citizens in the purchase and restoration of 
historic buildings in the state. It meets annually in joint session 
with the Association and allied societies. 

This late beginning in caring for the historic architecture of 
the state seems strange in the light of the Association's obvious 
intention to preserve historical materials other than written 
records. They specifically stated as an objective "the establish- 
ment of an historical museum." Fortunately, the Association had 
in Colonel Fred A. Olds an avid collector and the nucleus of a 
collection already well begun by him. Although the Association 
has often claimed credit for the establishment of the Hall of 
History, 52 this collection had been, since the 1880*8, and continued 



48 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 24. 

** Proceedings, twelfth session, 115-116. 

30 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, XVT (1939), 101. 

51 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, XVII (1940), 82-83. 

52 See "An Appeal," MS. Minutes, 1900-1917; also Minutes, tenth session, 52. The Hall of 
History is also listed as one of the Association's achievements in brief resumes of its history 
entitled "A Record of Achievement." These appeared in the printed programs for the annual 
sessions in 1912. 1914-1916, 



170 The North Carolina Historical Review 

to be, until his death, largely the work of Colonel Olds. From the 
beginning, however, the Association had worked with him 
through one of its committees — with Colonel Olds serving as 
chairman. 53 In 1902 the State Museum's small number of histori- 
cal items and Colonel Olds's collection were combined as the "Hall 
of History" and occupied one gallery of the State Museum. 54 The 
Hall of History was run, as Colonel Olds's report in 1907 puts it, 
"strictly on a volunteer basis," and no funds were provided for 
it by the state or any other organization. 55 When the State Li- 
brary was erected, specially designed quarters were provided in 
it for the collection. When it moved into its new quarters in 1914, 
it was taken over by the Historical Commission and has continued 
as the state historical museum. 56 From Colonel Olds' first yearly 
report in 1901, announcing the acquisition of 300 articles, 57 the 
collection has grown tremendously until in 1942 it held 20,000 
items. 58 

Direct efforts of the Association to promote the production of 
historical writing have already been referred to in connection 
with the county history movement. This is about as direct an 
effort to promote the production of historical writing as an 
organization with very limited funds can achieve. The two in- 
stances in which the Association attempted a more direct pro- 
motion are rather more "curious" than important. The first of 
these took the form of a petition in 1901 to the legislature to 
purchase Creecy's Grandfather's Tales, and, oddly enough, the 
legislature complied. 59 The second was even more direct. At an 
Executive Committee meeting in 1912, the Committee went on 
record "to urge General Jarvis to write his recollections and 
deposit them with the Historical Commission." 60 

J. Bryan Grimes, reporting on the accomplishments of the 
Association after its first decade, gives an impressive list of 
historical scholars who produced during the period 1900-1909: 



53 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 8. 

M "Hall of History," in North Carolina Historical Commission, Bulletin 43 (1942), 28-82. 

55 F. A. Olds, "The Historical Museum," in Literary and Historical Activities, 29-32. 

""Hall of History," in North Carolina Historical Commission, Bulletin 48 (1942), 28-82. 

67 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 8. 

•"Hall of History," in North Carolina Historical Commission, Bulletin 43 (1942). 32. 

09 The tales were children's stories drawn from the history of North Carolina by R. B. 
Creecy. The legislature appropriated $280 to be expended by the board of trustees of the 
Public Library in the purchase of copies of this book and they were to distribute them "aB 
they shall deem wise." Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 11. 

» Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting, September 27, 1912, MS. Minutea, 1900- 
1917, 83. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 171 

Battle, Ashe, Graham, Clark, Hill, Peele, Weeks, Connor, Hamil- 
ton, Nash, Clewell, Pittman, Boyd, Sims, Allen, Hoyt, Waddell, 
Sikes, Noble, Schenck, Haywood, Bassett, Grady, Dodd, and 
others. 61 Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm Colonel Grimes leaves 
the implication that somehow this historical output can be added 
to the laurels that he piles on the brow of the Association. This 
is highly dubious. Most of these men were either academicians 
whose business it was to produce historical writing or amateur 
historians already devoted to the Muse before the advent of the 
Association. 

If the paucity of its funds hindered the direct sponsorship of 
historical writing and made publication impossible, it did not 
entirely prevent the Association from attempting to fulfill its 
purpose of disseminating knowledge of state history. It has 
relied rather heavily upon its offspring, the Historical Commis- 
sion, to deal with the large problem of publication. While this 
agency, almost from its inception, has confined itself to the publi- 
cation of primary source materials culled from the best of its 
collection, it did for many years (up to 1923) issue a separate 
publication each year devoted to the annual meeting of the Asso- 
ciation. 62 In this manner the Association has been able to bring 
to the public not only its proceedings but also the papers at its 
sessions. These very largely concerned the history of the state and 
doubtless contributed to the fulfillment of the purpose of dis- 
seminating knowledge about North Carolina history, besides 
encouraging some historical writing on the part of its members. 
Since 1924 the North Carolina Historical Review has continued 
to publish those Association adresses that meet its standards of 
historical scholarship. 63 

The Association itself has been far more active in bringing 
state history to the attention of the public through projects that 
do not involve publication. At its first annual session in 1900, 
it set on foot a movement to stir an interest in state history in 
the public schools. This project known as "North Carolina Day" 
called for the designation of one day each year to "be set apart 



n Minutes, tenth session, 53. 

88 As previously cited: Literary and Historical Activities, 1900-1905; Minutes, 1905-1909; 
Proceedings, 1910-1922. Only the Proceedings are numbered publications. 

68 In addition, a summary of the proceedings of the annual meetings is published in 
the "Historical News" section of The North Carolina Historical Review. 



172 The North Carolina Historical Review 

in the schools of our State for the consideration of some im- 
portant fact of State history, with appropriate public exer- 
cises. . . ." 64 It gained the immediate support of the press and was 
enacted as law in 1901. 65 For a number of years a special com- 
mittee of the Association devoted a good deal of time to planning, 
in cooperation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, a 
rather elaborate program of exercises for the yearly celebrations. 
These programs, sometimes running to fifty pages, were printed 
by the state and distributed in large quantities. Besides historical 
sketches, the programs included readings, declamations, poetic 
recitations, songs, and general discussions. 66 Widespread ob- 
servance of North Carolina Day continued until about 1927. 67 
There was some attempt by the Association to revive the celebra- 
tions in 1947, but it apparently came to nothing. 68 

By 1905 the Association must have felt that one day a year 
devoted to North Carolina history was too niggardly an allot- 
ment, for in that year the Association successfully "lobbied" for 
the "History Text-book Act." 69 This bill provided funds "to pro- 
mote the production and publication of school books relating to 
the history, literature, or government of North Carolina, for use 
in the public schools." 70 

In an effort to reach the adult population, the Association made 
one venture into the field of extension work. An Extension Com- 
mittee under the chairmanship of Edwin Mims was hard at 
work on plans for this service early in 1911. Mims reported at 
the eleventh annual session that the colleges were unable to take 
up this work individually but that by working together through 
the Association a successful program might be evolved. 71 Accord- 
ingly, the colleges were sounded out and promised to cooperate. 
There was to be a series of lectures in each of the larger cities 
in the state given by two professors from each college. Although 
Chairman Mims was able to report the successful launching of 
the program in Winston-Salem in 1911 and plans for similar 



64 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 6. 

63 Public Laws of 1901, ch. 164. News and Observer, October 24, 1900; Fayettevitte Observer, 
October 24, 1900. 

M North Carolina Day, published by Superintendent of Public Instruction as a pamphlet 
(unnumbered) up to 1925. 

07 The last published program that I have been able to find occurs in State School Facta, 
September 15, 1927. Publication of Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

68 Minutes of Business Meeting, December 5, 1947, MS. Minutes, 1938-1948. 

69 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 25. 

70 Public Laws of 1905, ch. 707. 

71 Proceedings, eleventh session, 9-10. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 173 

programs in several other cities, the movement did not survive 
much beyond the first flush of enthusiasm. 72 

Thus in the work of collection, preservation, production, and 
dissemination of state history the Association has accomplished 
much by indirection through agencies it has sponsored and en- 
couraged. In the case of projects directly administered by the 
Association, only the venture into extension work can be called 
a failure. 

The Inculcation of a Literary Spirit among our People 

Throughout most of the Association's history, one or another of 
its members, and usually one of its most active and devoted mem- 
bers, found it necessary to remind the Association of, as one 
styled it, its "duplex title" — Literary and Historical. 73 Their 
complaints were not unfounded. Certainly it is difficult to find 
any achievement in the record of the Association for the cause 
of literature comparable to the sponsorship of the Historical 
Commission or the work on county history. Yet it is difficult to 
imagine any sort of a comparable project for literature. The 
secretaries of the Association have been acutely aware of this 
situation and have shown a willingness to cooperate with any 
member who would make a concrete suggestion for improvement. 
Unfortunately, when the ball has been tossed back to the critic 
there has usually been a great dearth of concrete suggestions. 74 
Perhaps there is some validity in the idea that the best things 
one can do for a literary artist are: one, leave him alone, and 
two, buy his books. Fortunately the Association has not taken 
this attitude but, wisely recognizing those areas in which it is 
powerless to aid the literary artist, has abstained from getting 
in his way and has concentrated upon the areas in which its 
activity can be a genuine contribution. 

Foremost among these has been the continued effort to offer 
the literary artist a commodity that he has always needed and 
not very often found in our American civilization — prestige. This 



72 Proceedings, twelfth session. 35. 

78 Proceedings, thirteenth session, 10. 

74 A particularly good illustration of this criticism, the Association's feeling in the matter, 
and the inability on the part of the critics to make constructive suggestions occurs in an 
exchange of correspondence between secretary A. R. Newsome and Addison Hibbard. See 
Hibbard to Newsome, October 29, 1929; Newsome to Hibbard, November 13, 1929; and Hibbard 
to Newsome, November 18, 1929. Correspondence. 



174 The North Carolina Historical Review 

the Association has accomplished through an annual award for 
literary merit, highlighted at the annual sessions, presented by 
a distinguished citizen before an audience of distinguished 
citizens. 

For all but thirteen years of its history, the Association has 
been able to present a trophy in annual recognition of outstand- 
ing literary achievement. The Patterson Cup was the first of 
these awards. In 1904 Mrs. J. Lindsay Patterson offered to pre- 
sent to the Association a gold, jeweled loving cup to be awarded 
annually, for a period of ten years, to the author of the best 
published work each year. 75 Mrs. Patterson designated the award 
as the William Houston Patterson Memorial Cup and set as con- 
ditions to the award that the author be a resident of North Caro- 
lina, that both prose and poetry be considered in the competition, 
and that a board of judges made up of college professors of 
English and history should determine the selection. Each year 
the winner's name was to be inscribed on the cup and he was to 
retain possession of it for that year. Mrs. Patterson stipulated 
that if anyone should win it three times, the cup would become 
his permanent possession. If at the end of ten years no one had 
won it three times, it was to continue to be awarded annually. 76 
John Charles McNeill was the first winner in 1905 for his volume 
of poems, Songs, Merry and Sad. 11 By 1923, after seventeen years 
of service, all available space for inscribing the names had been 
filled and only Clarence Poe had won twice. The cup was then 
retired, taking its place in the Hall of History. 78 

After a lapse of six years, the Association took up the problem 
of replacement. A committee for this purpose was considered at 
the annual session in 1929 79 and appointed in 1930. 80 On August 
1, 1930, Burnham S. Colburn, president of the Society of May- 
flower Descendants in North Carolina, offered on behalf of the 
Society to institute a new award. This was the birth of the May- 
flower Cup. The Society specified that the purpose of the award 
was to establish "a memorial to the passengers on the Mayflower" 
and "to stimulate interest in our own literature among the people 



75 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 24. 
70 Minutes, sixth session, 40. 

77 Minutes, sixth session, 40. 

78 Miss A. Fries to Mrs. J. L. Patterson, March 16, 1923, Correspondence. 

79 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, VII (1930), 168-9. 

80 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, VIII (1931), 140. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 175 

of the State." 81 The award, a silver trophy, was an original 
creation of William Waldo Dodge, Jr., of Biltmore Forest. 82 The 
stipulations governing the award were similar to those for the 
Patterson Cup, with the additional attraction of providing for 
a presentation of a replica of the cup to remain the permanent 
possession of the winner each year. The Cup itself was to remain 
in the permanent possession of the Association. 88 The first award 
of the Mayflower Cup was made at the annual meeting in 1931. 
It went to M. C. S. Noble of Chapel Hill for his A History of the 
Public Schools of North Carolina. 8 * By 1938 a feeling had grown 
up that something should be done to take the award out of "the 
academic cloisters where it has reposed for six out of the seven 
years in which it has been awarded." Accordingly, in that year the 
rules were changed to exclude scientific and technical works from 
the competition and two of the college faculty judges were replaced 
by two non-collegiate literary critics. 85 The cup was awarded to 
a Negro writer for the first time in 1943, when J. Saunders 
Redding of State Teachers College, Elizabeth City, won it for 
his No Day of Triumph. 86 Some indication of the proportions that 
the annual competition has reached can be gained from the fact 
that in 1949 forty-seven books were eligible for the award. 87 

This recognition for outstanding acheivement has been supple- 
mented by the Association's taking official cognizance of all 
literary endeavor by North Carolinians every year in the form 
of a report. This attempt to afford both a recognition to the 
writers and an inventory of the state's literary accomplishments 
took the form of an annual bibliographical report of North Caro- 
lina writing from 1902 to 1934. When in 1935 the volume of 
annual literary production reached the point where its recital 
exceeded the limits of the patience of the members who were 
obliged to sit through it, the Association resorted to an annual 
book review of selected titles from the pens of North Carolinians. 

This "inculcation of a literary spirit" was intended to apply 
not only to prospective writers of books but to readers as well. 



81 Burnham S. Colburn to president and Executive Committee of the State Literary and 
Historical Association, August 1, 1930, Correspondence. 

82 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, IX (1932), 111-112. 

83 Colburn to president and Executive Committee, August 1, 1930, Correspondence. 

84 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, IX (1932), 111. 

86 Nell Battle Lewis, "Incidentally," in News and Observer, September 11, 1938. 

86 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, XXI (1944), 92. 

87 Secretary's Report, October 15, 1949, MS. Minutes, 1938-1948. 



176 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The Association has endeavored to promote interest in North 
Carolina literature by cooperation with other groups that share 
this interest. As early as 1909 the Executive Committee laid plans 
for cooperating with the State Women's Clubs in outlining 
courses of study and promoting interest in state literature. 88 In 
1912 the Association resolved to appoint a delegate to meet with 
both the North Carolina Teacher's Assembly and the North Caro- 
lina Library Commission for the purpose of stimulating interest 
in North Carolina writing. 89 The Association even went on record 
in 1912 approving a resolution to establish literary clubs and to 
organize those already established through a general head- 
quarters in Raleigh. 90 Apparently this project never progressed 
beyond the planning stage. 

The Association's success in "inculcating a literary spirit" is 
difficult to measure. Certainly it would seem that its projects for 
arousing reader interest were ineffectual. On the other hand it 
is very probable that the annual awards have had a positive effect 
upon writers in North Carolina. 

The Encouragement op Public and School Libraries 

From the very beginning the Association has given its atten- 
tion to this part of its program. The first Executive Committee 
meeting of the Association in 1901 laid plans for a movement to 
expand the state's library facilities. They urged the General 
Assembly to amend the existing state library law so as to permit 
the establishment of libraries in the public schools of rural dis- 
tricts. 91 The General Assembly complied with this request the 
same year, providing the necessary appropriation. 92 The Asso- 
ciation has kept close watch over the administration of this Rural 
Library Act, as it came to be called. In 1903 it conducted a suc- 
cessful campaign for an enlargement of the provisions of the 
act. 93 When the legislature in 1931 proposed to cut out the annual 
appropriation for the rural libraries, the Association came to its 
defense. 94 



88 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting. November 27. 1909. MS. Minutes. 1900-1917. 
m Proceedings, thirteenth session, II. 
90 Proceedings, thirteenth session, 10. 

** Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 8. 
«■ Public Laws of 1901, ch. 662. 
8:! Minutes, third session, MS. Minutes, 1900-1910. 

M Executive Committee to Joint Appropriations Committee of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, February 11, 1981, Correspondence. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 177 

While the Rural Library Act was its most direct contribution, 
the Association has lent its active support to the State Library 
Commission in a number of its projects, taking a special in- 
terest in the Commission's efforts to extend rural library facili- 
ties through "traveling" and "package" libraries. 95 The Associa- 
tion has also been an active champion of the movement for a 
thorough equipping of the State Library as a general and refer- 
ence library for the state and a special reference bureau for the 
legislature. 96 

The Correction of Printed Misrepresentations about 

the State 

When the founders of the Association wrote this objective into 
the constitution in 1900, they were smoldering over repeated 
blows to their patriotic pride. They felt that North Carolina had 
been badly treated by historians. It is not the concern of this 
paper to discuss the justice or reasonableness of their feelings, 
other than to point out that they were in deadly earnest when 
they included this in their desired objectives. It was not added 
as an afterthought and no little attention was devoted to this 
matter in the first five years of the Association's existence. From 
the vantage point of the North Carolina of 1950, fully cognizant 
of its position as one of the most advanced states in the South, an 
objective view comes much easier and the Association can be 
awarded a much deserved plaudit for not allowing this business 
of righting historical wrongs to deflect its energies from the more 
constructive parts of its program. Indeed after 1905 there is 
hardly a mention of this objective. The one recorded instance 
when the Association went all out to fulfill its mission to correct 
misrepresentations about North Carolina occurred at the fifth 
annual meeting in 1904. At the meeting the year before, J. Bryan 
Grimes had called to the gathering's attention a speech given 
several weeks previously by one Judge George L. Christian be- 
fore the Grand Camp of the Virginia Confederate Veterans. In 
this speech, declared Colonel Grimes, the judge had "surprised 
the country by questioning the claims made by North Carolina 
as to her record in the War for Southern Independence." Colonel 



86 Proceedings, eleventh session, 12; Proceedings, thirteenth session, 9-10; minutes of thirty- 
eighth and fortieth sessions, MS. Minutes, 1938-1948. 

•• Proceedings, thirteenth session. 9-10; Proceedings, eighteenth session, 11. 



178 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Grimes then called for the appointment of a committee to deter- 
mine whether North Carolina was in truth "First at Bethel, 
Farthest at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, Last at Appomat- 
tox." 97 The committee searched the records and reported at the 
1904 meeting that, as a matter of fact, North Carolina was 
"First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg and Chickamauga and 
Last at Appomattox.' ' For the enlightenment of any future 
skeptics, the committee visited these battlefields and marked the 
position of the North Carolina troops with appropriate stone 
marjvers. 

To Engender an Intelligent, Healthy State Pride 

In the early years of the Association, the constant injunction 
of addresses and the constant basis of appeals for support was 
that "a people who do not record their history shall soon cease to 
be capable of making history worth recording." This last enu- 
merated purpose appears to have assumed the shape, in those 
early proceedings and addresses, of a statement of the end to- 
ward which the other purposes were working. A healthy state 
pride was to be nurtured upon an accurate knowledge of and 
realization of continuity with the past, supplied by a group who 
made it their business to collect and preserve the records of this 
past and to render them accessible to all. It was to be added to 
by the encouragement of literary values through libraries, lit- 
erary groups, and the recognition of literary talent. 

While these projects were working slowly but steadily among 
the people of North Carolina to produce a genuine appreciation 
of their inheritance upon which to build the future, the Asso- 
ciation was also engaged in projects that aimed directly at 
stimulating a healthy state pride. Throughout most of its history, 
the Association has acted upon the belief that the erection of 
public monuments and the public celebration of important his- 
torical events is an effective stimulant for producing historical 
consciousness. 

At the second annual meeting in 1901, General Julian S. Carr 
proposed that the Association sponsor the erection of a memorial 



97 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 22. Full reports by each member 
of the Committee are in Literary and Historical Activities, 416-499. 
M Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 23. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 179 

to Sir Walter Raleigh." From this time until General Carr's 
death in 1924, the project had a series of enthusiastic promotions 
and periods of dormancy. From 1901 to 1907 it prospered, then, 
except for a momentary effort in 1914 to obtain Federal funds, 100 
it lay dormant until 1922. That year upon the urging of General 
Carr the Association revived it and it persisted until 1924. 101 The 
life of the project seemed to run out with General Carr's own 
life ; indeed, it had been largely through his efforts that the proj- 
ect had managed to survive at all. 

Projects for the erection of other memorials have been more 
successful. In 1905 the Association began a campaign to have 
one of the two niches alloted to North Carolina in statuary Hall, 
Washington, D. C., filled with a statue of Zebulon Baird Vance. 102 
Two years later the General Assembly, acting on a petition from 
the Association, made provision for the execution and placing 
of this statue. 103 

After a successful subscription campaign led by Archibald 
Henderson, the Association presented to the state in 1914 a 
bronze plaque as a memorial to William Sidney Porter, who 
under the pseudonym of O. Henry added to the literary laurels 
of North Carolina. 104 

In addition to sponsoring the erection of these memorials, the 
Association has lent its active assistance to the efforts of other 
North Carolina organizations engaged in similar undertakings. 
Among these may be noted: the Andrew Johnson Memorial in 
Raleigh, begun in 1915 ; 105 the project of the Virginia Dare Asso- 
ciation to place a painting of the first baptism in America in the 
National Capitol in 1923 ; 106 and the project of the state's 
patriotic societies to fill the North Carolina Bay in the Cloister 
of the Colonies at Valley Forge, 1923-25. 107 

The public celebration of important historical events was be- 
gun just as early in the organization's history. The first of these 



98 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 15. 

100 Proceedings, fifteenth session, 11. 

i 01 Proceedings, twenty-second session, 10-11. See also "Historical News," North Carolina. 
Historical Review, I (1924), 72; II (1925), 112. 

103 Minutes, sixth session, 2. 

108 Minutes, eighth session, 21. 

** Proceedings, fifteenth session, 13-14. See also Proceedings, fourteenth session, 1S-14. 

186 Proceedings, sixteenth session, 10. 

186 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, I (1924), 73. 

107 "Historical News," North Carolina Historical Review, I (1924), 73. See also "Historical 
News," North Carolina Historical Review, III (1926), 159-160. 



180 The North Carolina Historical Review 

was undertaken in cooperation with Graham Daves and the 
Roanoke Colony Memorial Association in July, 1902. It was a 
very elaborate series of public exercises lasting over a period of 
several days in commemoration "of the landing of the first Anglo- 
Saxon colony in America" on Roanoke Island. 108 An even more 
elaborate celebration was planned for the tercentenary of the 
death of Sir Walter Raleigh. This celebration was scheduled for 
October 29, 1918, and was to be held contemporaneously with a 
similar celebration in England. There were even plans for the 
exchange of representatives of the two groups to participate in 
each other's exercises. Unfortunately an epidemic of influenza 
was then sweeping the country and reached its height in North 
Carolina just about the time the exercises were to be held. The 
most that was salvaged from the wreckage of its plans was an 
exchange of telegraphic greetings with the English celebrants 
and the publication of the addresses that had been prepared. 109 
Although the Association began a project for the marking of 
historic sites in 1910 and appointed a committee for that pur- 
pose, 110 its activities in this sphere until 1934 were limited to 
cooperation and encouragement of the work of the state patriotic 
societies and other organizations. In 1935 the climax of the Asso- 
ciation's endeavors in this field came with the securing of an act 
by the General Assembly to provide state funds for the erection 
of markers at points of historic interest along the public high- 
ways. The act made the erection of markers the joint responsi- 
bility of the Department of Conservation and Development, the 
State Historical Commission, and the State Highway Commis- 
sion. A group of historians from the several colleges of the state 
agreed to serve without compensation as a committee to designate 
points of historic interest to be marked and to pass upon in- 
scriptions for the markers. 111 Since 1935 the state has undertaken 
a very intensive campaign to mark points of historic interest and 
as a result over 600 markers have been erected thus far. 112 



108 Moses, "The State Literary and Historical Association," 15, 17-20. 

109 Proceedings (no session, "Raleigh Tercentenary"), North Carolina Historical Commis- 
sion, Bulletin 25, 1-146. 

110 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting, November 27, 1909, MS. Minutes, 1900-1917, 65. 
For comment see News and Observer, March 19, 1910. 

t» Public Laws of 19S5, ch. 197. 

118 A complete listing of these markers can be found in Guide to North Carolina Historical 
Highway Markers, Raleigh, 1949 (a joint publication of The State Department of Archives 
and History and The Department of Conservation and Development). 



Papers prom the Fiftieth Annual Session 181 

The foregoing consideration of the achievements of the Asso- 
ciation under the original objectives that it set for itself in 1900 
and pursued until 1948 represents, of course, only those results 
of its labors that are measurable through the technique of his- 
torical research. What the organization has accomplished in the 
way of an inspirational character, in stimulating interest, in 
encouraging literary and historical endeavor and in arousing a 
state pride must remain largely conjecture. In contemplating its 
record, one might say that the "facts speak for themselves" but 
this has only limited validity. In many cases the facts do not 
speak loudly enough, and perhaps in a few instances they speak 
a bit more boisterously than they should. 

To complete the record down to the present and incidentally 
to furnish a possible index of what the Association itself believes 
it has accomplished, some mention must be made of the changes 
in the objectives of the organization brought about by the new 
constitution in 1948. The new constitution was written by a com- 
mittee under the chairmanship of Roger P. Marshall appointed 
at an Executive Committee meeting on April 12, 1948, 113 and 
adopted by the Association at the forty-eighth annual session. 
The new purposes are as follows : 

To foster the interest of our people in the literature and history 
of North Carolina. 

To encourage productive literary activity within the State, 
and to assist in bringing to public attention meritorious works 
by North Carolina writers. 

To promote broad and varied activity in the field of state and 
local history. 

To serve as a medium for the constructive exchange of ideas 
among persons concerned for the permanent well-being of North 
Carolina. 

To cooperate, so far as may be practicable, with other organi- 
zations in North Carolina whose purposes are similar to the 
purposes of this Association. 114 

The most significant thing about these new purposes is their 
more general character. The framers of the 1900 constitution 
had a number of very definite things in mind when they wrote 

u3 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting, April 12, 1948, MS. Minutes, 1938-1948. The 
record of the adoption is in minutes of forty-eighth session, MS. Minutes, 1938-1948. 

114 The full text of the constitution may be found in the report of the committee appointed 
to draft it given at an Executive Committee Meeting, December 3, 1948, MS. Minutes, 1938- 



182 The North Carolina Historical Review 

down their objectives. The framers of the 1948 constitution, 
surveying the cultural landscape of North Carolina, have not 
seen fit to define their field of endeavor with any degree of par- 
ticularity. Rather than indicating complacency, this points up 
the fact that remarkable changes have come about in the last 
fifty years — changes that have brought not only a progress that 
has wiped out some of the ills that the men of 1900 sought to 
remedy but that has also brought a complexity that makes it 
virtually impossible to single out particular areas of attack. Thus 
the new objectives were purposely made very broad and general 
to give the Association a scope sufficient to enable it to act in a 
wide range of specific undertakings. 115 

If these changes in its objectives can be interpreted beyond 
this practical purpose, they would seem to indicate four distinct 
reactions to its history on the part of the Association: (1) That 
the organization has accomplished a number of its original pur- 
poses. Public and school libraries have been created and con- 
stantly improved. Historical collections have been well established 
and provisions made to preserve them permanently and to make 
them available to the public. A historical museum has been es- 
tablished and has grown greatly. True, there is no end to these 
projects, which do and should continue to demand attention. But 
special organizations have been created by the state, some at the 
Association's urging, to direct their progress. The Association 
can now best serve these projects by simply cooperating with the 
directing agencies. Hence the new purpose of "cooperation with 
other organizations" replaces several of the old specific objectives. 

(2) That the passage of time has wrought a change in the out- 
look of the Association. Misrepresentations about the state no 
longer occupy the importance in 1948 that they did in 1900. 
"State pride" has remained an objective but the phrase has given 
way to "concern for the permanent well-being of North Caro- 
lina." This too is representative of the change in the trend of 
thought. 

(3) That some of the original objectives of the Association con- 
tinue to be worthy goals to work toward. To foster an interest 
in the literature and history of North Carolina is, of course, a 



115 There was of course the added realization that specific objectives do not ordinarily belong 
in a constitution. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 183 

general enough objective to cover all past and future activities 
of the Association. But where other purposes have been specified 
the 1948 constitution has stated them in conformity with the 
major trends that the Association's projects have evolved in its 
forty-eight years of experience. The provisions for bringing to 
public attention meritorious works by North Carolina writers 
and the promotion of local history are cases in point, deriving 
their inspiration from the long established practice of the annual 
literary award and the county history movement respectively. 

It has been only two years since the Association has functioned 
under its new set of objectives — too early perhaps to gauge the 
outcome of new projects or to begin to set up a new balance 
sheet. Yet there is already an indication of the new life that the 
Association had in mind when it expanded its scope. A vigorous 
campaign has been launched for the erection by the state of an 
archives-museum center in Raleigh to house several of the cul- 
tural organizations in the state and provide a place for the 
preservation and exhibition of their collections. The Association 
thrives in the midst of a vastly different North Carolina, embark- 
ing on the pursuit of its new objectives under tremendously im- 
proved facilities, under a sunnier cultural climate and with fifty 
years of experience behind it. The founders of the Association 
complained bitterly of an enemy that still defies extermination — 
indifference. If it has done nothing else, this "balance sheet" 
proves that progress can be made against this enemy. It remains 
for the Association to practice what it has preached for half a 
century and look into its own history for inspiration to build a 
better future. 



APPENDIX 

I. BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Manuscript : 

Papers of The State Literary and Historical Association, 1900- 
1949, in State Department Archives and History, Raleigh. 
Consisting of: 

Minute Book 1900-1910. 1 vol. 

Minute Book 1900-1917. 1 vol. 

Minutes 1938-1948. (unbound) 1 box. 

Correspondence, 34 boxes covering period 1900-1949. 
A. R. Newsome, An Address before the Conference on County 

History, Raleigh, 1927, in the possession of the author. 
Printed : 

Literary and Historical Activities in North Carolina, 1900- 
1905, W. J. Peele, ed. (Publication of the North Carolina His- 
torical Commission, unnumbered) Raleigh, Edwards and 
Broughton, 1907. 

Minutes of The State Literary and Historical Association, 
1905-1909 (Publications of the North Carolina Historical Com- 
mission, five unnumbered pamphlets) Raleigh, 1906-1910. 
Proceedings of The State Literary and Historical Association, 
1911-1922 (Publications of the North Carolina Historical 
Commission, Bulletins 11, 12, 15, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 30) 
Raleigh, 1912-1923. 

North Carolina Historical Revieiv, vols. I-XXVII (1924-1950) 
only printed source except the newspapers for the Associa- 
tion's proceedings from 1923 to date. 

Programs of The State Literary and Historical Association , 
the combined resources of the Association's files and the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina Library yield the following: 1900- 
1909, 1913-1917, 1919, 1922, 1924, 1926-1949. 
News and Observer (Raleigh), 1900, 1910, 1938. 
Fayetteville Observer, 1900. 
Charlotte Daily Observer, 1900. 
New Bern Daily Journal, 1900. 

All the above newspapers in University of North Carolina 

Library, Chapel Hill. 
North Carolina Day (25 unnumbered pamphlets issued by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction), Raleigh, 1901-1925. 
State School Facts, Sept. 15, 1927 (a periodical issued semi- 
monthly by the Superintendent of Public Instruction) , Raleigh. 
Public Laws of North Carolina, 1901, 1903, 1905, 1935. 



[184 1 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 



185 



II. 



1900-1901 



PRESIDENTS AND SECRETARIES OF 
THE ASSOCIATION 



Presidents 
Walter Clark 



1901-1903 Henry G. Connor 



1903 
1903-1904 
1904-1905 
1905-1906 
1906-1907 

1907 
1907-1908 
1908-1909 
1909-1911 

1911 
1911-1912 
1912-1913 
1913-1914 
1914-1915 
1915-1916 
1916-1917 
1917-1919 
1919-1920 
1920-1921 
1921-1922 
1922-1923 
1923-1924 
1924-1925 
1925-1926 
1926-1927 
1927-1928 
1928-1929 
1929-1930 
1930-1931 

1931-1932 
1932-1933 
1933-1934 
1934-1935 
1935-1936 
1936-1937 
1937-1938 
1938-1939 
1939-1940 
1940-1941 



William L. Poteat 

C. Alphonso Smith 
Robert W. Winston 
Charles B. Aycock 
W. D. Pruden** 

A. M. Scales 
Robert Bingham 
Junius Davis 
Piatt D. Walker 
Edward K. Graham 
R. D. W. Connor 
William P. Few 
Archibald Henderson 
Clarence Poe 
Howard E. Rondthaler 
H. A. London 
James Sprunt 
J. G. deR. Hamilton 

D. H. Hill 
William K. Boyd 
Adelaide L. Fries 
W. C. Jackson 
Frederick H. Koch 
Thomas M. Pittman 
Josephus Daniels 
James Boyd 

H. M. Wagstaff 
Horace Kephart 
Bishop Joseph 

Blount Cheshire 
George W. Paschal 
J. Fred Rippy 
Frank P. Graham 
Phillips Russell 
William T. Polk 
William T. Laprade 
Jonathan Daniels 
A. R. Newsome 
Struthers Burt 
W. T. Couch 



* Hill was Secretary-Treasurer (resigned 1901) and 
** Died in office. 



Secretaries 
Alex J. Feild 
D. H. Hill* 
Alex J. Feild 
George S. Fraps 
Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 

Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 
Clarence Poe 
R. D. W. Connor 
R. D. W. Connor 
R. D. W. Connor 
R. D. W. Connor 
R. D. W. Connor 
R. D. W. Connor 
R. D. W. Connor 
R. B. House 
R. B. House 
R. B. House 
R. B. House 
R. B. House 
R. B. House 
A. R. Newsome 
A. R. Newsome 
A. R. Newsome 
A. R. Newsome 
A. R. Newsome 

A. R. Newsome 
A. R. Newsome 
A. R. Newsome 
A. R. Newsome 
Christopher Crittenden 
Christopher Crittenden 
Christopher Crittenden 
Christopher Crittenden 
Christopher Crittenden 
Christopher Crittenden 

Feild was Corresponding Secretary. 



186 The North Carolina Historical Review 

1941-1942 Hubert A. Royster Christopher Crittenden 

1942-1943 Paul Green Christopher Crittenden 

1943-1944 Hubert M. Poteat Christopher Crittenden 

1944-1945 Aubrey L. Brooks Christopher Crittenden 

1945-1946 Robert B. House Christopher Crittenden 

1946-1947 Carlyle Campbell Christopher Crittenden 

1947-1948 Alice M. Baldwin Christopher Crittenden 

1948-1949 W. T. Bost Christopher Crittenden 

1949-1950 Charles S. Sydnor Christopher Crittenden 

III. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1900 

Name 

This Association shall be called The State Literary and His- 
torical Association. 

Purposes 

The purposes of this Association shall be the collection, preser- 
vation, production, and dissemination of our State literature and 
history; the encouragement of public and school libraries; the 
establishment of an historical museum; the inculcation of a 
literary spirit among our people ; the correction of printed mis- 
representations concerning North Carolina, and the engendering 
of an intelligent, healthy State pride in the rising generation. 

Officers 

The officers of this Association shall be a President and three 
Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and Treasurer, and a Corresponding- 
Secretary, whose terms of office shall be for one year and until 
their successors are elected and qualified. They shall be elected 
by the Association at its annual meetings, except that vacancies 
in any office may be filled by the Executive Committee until the 
meeting of the Association occurring next thereafter. 

The duties of the President shall be to preside over all the 
meetings of the Association, to appoint all members of commit- 
tees, except where it is otherwise provided, and to look after the 
general interest of the Association. In case of the death or resigna- 
tion of the President, his successor shall be chosen from among 
the Vice-Presidents by the Executive Committee to fill the un- 
expired term. In the absence of the President, at any meeting, 
the Vice-President who may be selected by the Association shall 
preside. 

The Secretary and Treasurer shall keep the books and the 
funds of the Association, and shall pay out money only upon the 
order of the Executive Committee and the warrant of its chair- 
man and the President. 

The Corresponding Secretary shall attend to the correspond- 
ence of the Association, and act under the general direction of the 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 187 

Executive Committee, and, for cause, he may be removed by the 
Executive Committee, in its discretion. 

Committees 

The permanent standing committees of the Association shall 
be: 

I. An Executive Committee, consisting of five members and 
the officers of the Association, who shall be ex officio members, 
except the Corresponding Secretary, any three of whom and an 
ex officio member shall constitute a quorum for the transaction 
of business. 

The duties of this committee shall be to make programmes 
and arrangements for all meetings of the Association, to manage 
its business matters, to receive and acknowledge such donations 
in money, or its equivalent, as may be offered, and to endeavor 
specially to create a permanent fund of endowment by recom- 
mendation of its objects to our philanthropic citizens of means, 
to receive all reports of officers made when the Association is 
not in session, to make a report of its own actions and the affairs 
of the Association at the meetings thereof, and to perform the 
other duties herein prescribed for it. 

This committee shall have power to determine the compensa- 
tion of any paid officer or servant of the Association it may be 
necessary to employ, subject to the general supervision of the 
Association. 

II. A committee on Literature and History, consisting of 
twelve members, to be appointed by the President, and such 
other members of the Association as they shall associate with 
themselves. 

It shall be their duty to collect valuable material connected 
with the history of North Carolina and such of its literature as, 
in their judgement, is worthy to be preserved. They shall en- 
deavor to secure the cooperation of local committees in the cities 
and towns of the State, and may appoint sub-committees wher- 
ever the same may be necessary for the prosecution of their 
work in any locality. 

They shall examine and recommend for publication such of 
the manuscripts submitted to them as may be thought worthy, 
and they may require as a condition precedent to their taking 
any manuscript into consideration that its author first secure 
the endorsement of some local committee, and they shall have 
charge of any printing or publication ordered or authorized by 
the Association. 

III. A committee on Libraries, consisting of twelve members, 
to be appointed by the President. 

It shall be their duty to ascertain and report to the Association, 
as far as may be practicable, the number and condition of the 
public and school libraries in the State, and to devise and suggest 
plans for their establishment and promotion. 



188 The North Carolina Historical Review 

It shall be their special duty to suggest, promote, and en- 
courage free libraries in connection with schools and factories. 

This committee shall have power to associate with itself other 
members of the Association, and to appoint such sub-committees 
as it may deem requisite for its work in any locality. 

IV. A committee on Membership and Local Organizations, 
consisting of twelve members. 

It shall be their duty to find out by correspondence and other- 
wise persons in all parts of the State who are in sympathy with 
the objects of the Association and to bring the same to their at- 
tention as far as may be practicable. They shall promote and en- 
courage local literary and historical organizations and endeavor 
to secure their cooperation with this Association by representa- 
tion at its meetings and otherwise. 

All applications for membership shall be made through this 
committee, and no person shall be elected, after the first meeting, 
except upon their recommendation. 

V. A committee on an Historical Museum, consisting of seven 
members, to be appointed by the President, with power to as- 
sociate with itself such other members of the Association as 
are interested in its special work. 

It shall be the duty of this committee, by correspondence or 
otherwise, to collect and accept for the Association, and place 
in a museum or place of safe-keeping and exhibition, all valuable 
historical relics and original documents which may be donated or 
collected, and to endeavor to discover and collect them wherever 
they may be found: Provided, that the Historical Department 
of the State Museum, with the concurrence of its proper officers, 
be selected as the permanent place of deposit and safe-keeping 
for the Association. 

Membership 
Any white resident of the State, or North Carolinian residing 
out of the State, who subscribes to the purposes of the Associa- 
tion, is eligible to membership and may be elected by the Associa- 
tion, or by the Executive Committee when it is not in session, 
upon the recommendation of the Committee on Membership. 

Fees 

The initiation fee and the annual dues of each member of the 
Association shall be one dollar, to be paid to the Secretary and 
Treasurer. 

Meetings 

There shall be one regular general meeting in each year, the 
time and place thereof to be determined by the Executive Com- 
mittee.* 



* This constitution was adopted at the first annual session of the Association, Raleigh, 
October 28, 1900. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 189 

IV. THE REVISED CONSTITUTION OF 1922 

Name 

This Association shall be called the State Literary and His- 
torical Association of North Carolina. 

Purposes 

The purposes of this association shall be the collection, preser- 
vation, production, and dissemination of our State literature 
and history; the encouragement of public and school libraries; 
the establishment of an historical museum ; the inculcation of a 
literary spirit among our people ; the correction of printed mis- 
representations concerning North Carolina ; and the engendering 
of a healthy State pride among the rising generation. 

Officers 

The officers of the association shall be a president, first, sec- 
ond, and third vice-presidents, and a secretary, whose terms of 
office shall be for one year and until their successors shall be 
elected and qualified. They shall be elected by the association at 
its annual meetings, except that vacancies in any office may be 
filled by the executive committee until the meeting of the as- 
sociation next thereafter. 

The president shall preside over all the meetings of the as- 
sociation, and appoint all members of committees, except where 
it is otherwise provided, and look after the general interest of 
the association. In case of the death or resignation of the presi- 
dent, his successor shall be selected by the executive committee 
from the vice-presidents. 

The secretary shall be the administrative officer of the as- 
sociation. He shall keep the books and funds, receive money for 
the association, and disburse it for purposes authorized by the 
executive committee. He shall strive by all practical means to in- 
crease the membership and influence of the association. 

Committees 

There shall be an executive committee, composed of the presi- 
dent, the secretary, and six others, two of whom shall be ap- 
pointed each year by the incoming president, to serve three 
years : Provided, that at the annual session, 1922, four members 
shall be elected by the association, as follows: two members to 
serve one year, and two to serve two years. The president, secre- 
tary, and any other three members shall constitute a quorum 
for the transaction of business. 

The executive committee shall make programs and arrange- 
ments for all meetings of the association, supervise all business 
matters, receive all reports of officers, endeavor especially to 
secure from philanthropic citizens donations toward a perma- 
nent fund of endowment, and in general promote the purpose 



190 The North Carolina Historical Review 

of the association. The executive committee shall be subject to 
the general supervision of the association. 

There shall be such other committees appointed by the presi- 
dent to serve during his term of office for such time and such 
purposes as he shall see fit. 

Membership 

All persons interested in its purposes and desiring to have a 
part in promoting them are eligible to membership in the associa- 
tion. They will duly be enrolled upon the receipt of the annual 
membership fee. 

Fees 

The annual membership fee shall be one dollar, to be paid to 
the secretary. 

Meetings 

There shall be one regular annual meeting, the time and place 
of which shall be determined by the executive committee. Other 
meetings may be arranged by the executive committee. 

Auxiliary Societies 

Auxiliary societies may be organized, with the advice of, and 
under the supervision of, the executive committee. 1 

V. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1948 
Article I.— Name and Purposes 

Section 1. This Association shall be called The State Literary 

and Historical Association. 

Section 2. The purposes of this Association shall be as follows : 

(1) To foster the interest of our people in the litera- 
ture and history of North Carolina. 

(2) To encourage productive literary activity within 
the State, and to assist in bringing to public attention 
meritorious works by North Carolina writers. 

(3) To promote broad and varied activity in the 
field of state and local history. 

(4) To serve as a medium for the constructive ex- 
change of ideas among persons concerned for the 
permanent well-being of North Carolina. 

(5) To cooperate, so far as may be practicable, with 
other organizations in North Carolina whose pur- 
poses are similar to the purposes of this Association. 

Article II— Officers 
Section 1. The officers of the Association shall be a President, 
three Vice-Presidents, and a Secretary-Treasurer. Of the Presi- 
dent and the three Vice-Presidents, no two shall be residents of 
the same county. 

1 This constitution was adopted by the Association at the twenty -second annual session, 
Raleigh, December 8, 1922. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 191 

Section 2. Officers shall be elected by the Association at its 
annual meetings for a term of one year, or until their successors 
are elected and qualified. 

Section 3. Any vacancy in office may be filled by the Executive 
Committee until the meeting of the Association next thereafter. 
In the event of the death or resignation of the President, his 
successor to serve during the unexpired term shall be chosen by 
the Executive Committee from among the Vice-Presidents. In 
the absence of the President at any meeting, the Vice-President 
who may be designated by the Association shall preside. 
Section 4. The duties of the President shall be : 

(1) To preside over all meetings of the Association. 

(2) To appoint all committees, except where it is 
otherwise provided. 

(3) To maintain the general interest of the Associa- 
tion, and to enlist the counsel and support of the 
membership in doing so. 

(4) To lead in keeping constantly before the mem- 
bership the stated purposes of the Association, 
and in formulating or furthering a program 
through which those purposes may be translated 
into effective activity both during and after his 
term of office. 

Section 5. The Vice-Presidents shall be expected to attend meet- 
ings of the Executive Committee, and to serve when called upon 
in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 above. 
Section 6. Acting under the general direction of the Executive 
Committee, the Secretary-Treasurer shall attend to the corre- 
spondence, and have charge of the funds and records of the 
Association. He shall be that officer chiefly responsible for pro- 
moting the free interchange of communication between member- 
ship and Executive Committee, and for submitting to the mem- 
bers, by mail or at meetings, timely reports upon matters of 
common interest. 

Article III — Committees 

Section 1. A permanent standing committee shall be the Execu- 
tive Committee. This committee shall consist of six elected mem- 
bers, as prescribed in Section 2, below, and the officers of the 
Association. 

Section 2. Two members of the Executive Committee shall be 
elected by the Association each year, for a term of three years. 
As of December 2, 1948, two members are serving the term to 
expire December 31, 1948 ; two members are serving the term to 
expire December 31, 1949; and two members are serving the 
term to expire December 31, 1950. 

Section 3. Any six members shall constitute a quorum for the 
transaction of business. 

Section 4. (1) The Executive Committee shall supervise the 
business matters of the Association, and shall have power to de- 



192 The North Carolina Historical Review 

termine the compensation of any person employed by the Associa- 
tion. (2) This committee shall receive and acknowledge such gifts 
in money or its equivalent as may be offered ; and shall especially 
endeavor to create and augment a permanent endowment for the 
more effectual promotion of the purposes of the Association. (3) 
The Executive Committee shall make plans and arrangements 
for all meetings of the Association ; shall receive reports of offi- 
cers when the Association is not in session ; and shall make re- 
ports of its own at meetings of the Association. (4) Applications 
for membership shall be made to this committee, and persons 
shall be elected to membership only by its vote. 
Section 5. A nominating committee of five members shall be elect- 
ed at each annual business meeting. This committee shall nominate 
candidates for office and for membership on the Executive Com- 
mittee, to be voted upon at the annual business meeting in the 
following year. 

Section 6. An auditing committee of three members shall be 
appointed each year to audit the accounts of the Secretary-Treas- 
urer. 

Section 7. The Executive Committee is empowered to authorize 
other committees as needs for them may arise. 

Article IV— Membership, Dues, Meetings 

Section 1. Any person who subscribes to the purposes of the 
Association is eligible to membership, and may be admitted to 
membership by vote of the Executive Committee. 
Section 2. Annual dues of each member of the Association shall 
be two dollars, payable to the Secretary-Treasurer. 
Section 3. (1) There shall be one regular general meeting in 
each year. (2) Other meetings may be called by the Executive 
Committee in its discretion. 

Section 4. A quorum for the transaction of business shall be 
those present and voting who have paid their dues for the cur- 
rent fiscal year. 

Article V — Constitution: Adoption and Amendments 

Section 1. This constitution, having been approved by the Ex- 
ecutive Committee, shall become effective upon approval by three- 
lourths of the members voting. 

Section 2. For adoption of an amendment, approval of three- 
fourths of the members voting shall be required. 
Section 3. Beginning with 1952, the constitution shall be pub- 
lished and sent to the members every fourth year, along with 
the annual published list of the Association membership.* 



* This constitution was adopted by the Association at the forty-eighth annual session. 
Raleigh, December S, 1948. 



Papers prom the Fiftieth Annual Session 193 

VI. THE PATTERSON MEMORIAL CUP 

The Conditions of Award Officially Set Forth by Mrs. Patterson. 
As a memorial to my father, and with a view to stimulating 
effort among the writers of North Carolina, and to awaken 
among the people of the State an interest in their own literature, 
I desire to present to your Society a loving cup, upon the follow- 
ing stipulations, which I trust will meet with your approval and 
will be found to be just and practicable : 

1. The cup will be known as the "William Houston Patterson 
Memorial Cup." 

2. It will be awarded at each annual meeting of your Associa- 
tion for ten successive years, beginning with October, 1905. 

3. It will be given to that resident of the State who during the 
twelve months from September 1st of the previous year to Sep- 
tember 1st of the year of the award has displayed, either in prose 
or poetry, without regard to its length, the greatest excellence 
and the highest literary skill and genius. The work must be pub- 
lished during the said twelve months, and no manuscript nor any 
unpublished writings will be considered. 

4. The name of the successful competitor will be engraved 
upon the cup, with the date of the award, and it will remain in 
his possession until October 1st of the following year, when it 
shall be returned to the Treasurer of the Association, to be by 
him held in trust until the new award of your annual meeting 
that month. It will become the permanent possession of the one 
winning it oftenest during the ten years, provided he shall have 
won it three times. Should no one, at the expiration of that 
period, hove won it so often, the competition shall continue until 
that result is reached. The names of only those competitors who 
shall be living at the time of the final award shall be considered 
in the permanent disposition of the cup. 

5. The Board of Award shall consist of the President of the 
Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina, who will 
act as chairman, and of the occupants of the chairs of English 
Literature at the University of North Carolina, at Davidson Col- 
lege, at Wake Forest College, and at the State College of Agri- 
culture an Mechanic Arts at Raleigh, and of the chairs of History 
at the University of North Carolina and Trinity College. 

6. If any of these gentlemen should decline or be unable to 
serve, their successors shall be appointed by the remaining mem- 
bers of the board, and these appointees may act for the whole 
unexpired term or for a shorter time, as the board may determ- 
ine. Notice of the inability of any member to act must be given 
at the beginning of the year during which he declines to serve, 
so that there may be a full committee during the entire term of 
each year. 

7. The publication of a member of the board will be considered 
and passed upon in the same manner as that of anv other writer. 



194 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Supplementary Resolution 

According to a resolution adopted at the 1908 session, the 
Association further provided that no author desiring to have his 
work considered in connection with the award of the cup shall 
communicate with any member of the committee, either personal- 
ly or through a representative. Books or other publications to 
be considered, together with any communication regarding them, 
must be sent to the Secretary of the Association and by him pre- 
sented to the chairman of the committee for consideration. 

VII. AWARDS OF THE PATTERSON MEMORIAL CUP 

1905 John Charles McNeill, for poems later reprinted in book 

form as Songs, Merry and Sad. 

1906 Edwin Mims, for Life of Sidney Lanier. 

1907 Kemp Plummer Battle, for History of the University of 

North Carolina. 

1908 Samuel A' Court Ashe, for History of North Carolina. 

1909 Clarence Poe, for A Southerner in Europe. 

1910 R. D. W. Connor, for Cornelius Harnett: An Essay in 

North Carolina History. 

1911 Archibald Henderson, for George Bernard Shaw: His 

Life and Works. 

1912 Clarence Poe, for Where Half the World is Waking Up. 

1913 Horace Kephart, for Our Southern Highlanders. 

1914 J. G. deR. Hamilton, for Reconstruction in North Carolina. 

1915 William Louis Poteat, for The New Peace. 

1916 No award. 

1917 Mrs. Olive Tilford Dargan, for The Cycle's Rim,. 

1918 No award. 

1919 No award. 

1920 Miss Winifred Kirkland, for The New Death. 

1921 No award. 

1922 Josephus Daniels, for Our Navy at War. 

VIII. THE MAYFLOWER SOCIETY CUP 

The Conditions of Award Officially Set Forth by the Society of 
Mayflower Descendants in the State of North Carolina. 

As a memorial to the passengers on the Mayflower who landed 
at Plymouth Rock in the State of Massachusetts in the year 1620, 
and for the purpose of stimulating among the people of the State 
an interest in their own literature, the Society of Mayflower De- 
scendants in the State of North Carolina desires to present to 
your Association a cup, together with a small replica, and to 
present each succeeding year another replica to be used by you 
as suggested in the following stipulations: 

1. The cup will be known as the MAYFLOWER SOCIETY 
CUP. It will remain in the permanent possession of the North 
Carolina Literary and Historical Association and be kept in a 
suitable place in the Hall of History at Raleigh. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 195 

2. The replica will be given, one each calendar year, to the 
resident of the State of North Carolina who, during the preceding 
twelve months ending November 1st, shall have published an 
original work of outstanding excellence, which in the opinion 
of the Board of Award, hereinafter specified, shall appear to 
have been the most deserving of recognition. The work may be 
either prose or poetry and will be judged without regard for 
length. In any year when the best work appears, in the judgment 
of the Board of Award, not to be worthy of recognition, no award 
will be made. 

3. At the time of the award, the name of the author and the 
name of the work, together with the year of date, shall be en- 
graved upon the cup for permanent record and upon the replica 
which shall then be presented to the author. 

4. The Board of Award shall consist of the President of the 
North Carolina Literary and Historical Association as Chairman, 
and the heads of the Departments of English and History at the 
University of North Carolina and Duke University. 

5. The publication of a member of the Board of Award will be 
considered and passed upon in the same manner as that of any 
other writer. 1 

Revision of the Conditions of Award. 

The beginning of the award year was changed in 1933 from 
November 1 to September l. 2 

In 1934 section 4 was revised to read : "The Board of ^.ward 
each year shall consist of the President of the State Literary and 
Historical Association as chairman and the heads of the depart- 
ments of English and History at two of the following institu- 
tions : University of North Carolina, Duke University, State Col- 
lege of A. and E., Wake Forest College, Davidson College, and the 
Woman's College of the University of North Carolina. The Sec- 
retary of the Association shall arrange a schedule of rotation 
so that the two members from each institution shall serve for 
overlapping terms of two years. 3 

Section 4 was again changed in 1938 to read as follows : "The 
Board of Award shall consist of five persons to include the Presi- 
dent of the State Literary and Historical Association of North 
Carolina, as chairman, the heads of the departments of English 
and History at one of the colleges enumerated below, and two 
literary critics from any one city in North Carolina. The Board 
of Award to be chosen each year by the Secretary of the State 
Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina and the 
Governor of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State 
of North Carolina : 

Davidson College University of North Carolina 
Duke University Wake Forest College 
State College Woman's College of the Univer- 
sity of North Carolina'' 

1 Burnham S. Colburn to the president and Executive Committee of the Association, August 
1. 1930. 
a A. R. Newsome to Board of Award, September 12, 1988. 
8 A. R. Newsome to Burnham S. Colburn, October 6. 1984. 



196 The North Carolina Historical Review 

At the same time the following stipulation was inserted before 
the last sentence in section 2: "Technical and scientific works 
are ineligible." 4 

In 1939 section 5 was made to read : "In case the publication 
of a member of the Board of Award shall be eligible for the com- 
petition, that member shall not serve, and the Governor of the 
Society of Mayflower Descendants in North Carolina and the 
Secretary of the State Literary and Historical Association shall 
select a substitute." 

A new regulation was inserted as section 3 in 1941, while 
sections 3, 4, and 5 were changed to 4, 5, and 6 respectively. The 
new regulation follows : "To be eligible for the award, a person 
shall have maintained either legal residence or actual physical 
residence, or a combination of both, in the State of North Caro- 
lina for the three years immediately preceding the close of the 
contest period." 

With these amendments in force, the Conditions of Award now 
read as follows : 

As a memorial to the passengers on the Mayflower who landed 
at Plymouth Rock in the State of Massachusetts in the year 1620, 
and for the purpose of stimulating among the people of the State 
an interest in their own literature, the Society of the Mayflower 
Descendants in the State of North Carolina has presented the 
State Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina a 
cup, together with a small replica, and presents each succeeding 
year another replica, to be used under the following stipulations. 

1. The cup will be known as "The Mayflower Society Cup." 
It will remain in the permanent possession of the State Literary 
and Historical Association and be kept in a suitable place in the 
Hall of History at Raleigh. 

2. The replica will be given, one each year, to the resident of 
State of North Carolina who, during the preceding twelve months 
ending August 31, shall have published an original work of 
outstanding excellence which, in the opinion of the Board of 
Award, hereinafter specified, shall appear to be the most deserv- 
ing of recognition. The work may be either prose or poetry, and 
will be judged without regard to length. Technical and scientific 
works are ineligible. In any year when the best work appears, in 
the judgment of the Board of Award, not to be worthy of recog- 
nition, no award will be made. 

3. To be eligible for the award, a person shall have maintained 
either legal residence or actual physical residence, or a combina- 
tion of both, in the State of North Carolina for the three years 
immediately preceding the close of the contest period. 

4. At the time of the award, the name of the author and the 
name of the work, together with the year of date, shall be en- 



* Society of Mayflower Descen dents in the State of North Carolina to the president and 
Executive Committee of the State Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina, May 
20, 1938. 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 197 

graved upon the cup for the permanent record, and upon the 
replica which shall then be presented to the author. 

5. The Board of Award shall consist of five persons to include 
the President of the State Literary and Historical Association 
of North Carolina, the heads of the departments of English and 
History at one of the following Colleges enumerated below, and 
two literary critics chosen from one city in North Carolina. The 
Board of Award is to be chosen each year by the Secretary of the 
State Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina, and 
the Governor of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the 
State of North Carolina. 

6. In the event the publication of a member of the Board of 
Award shall be eligible for the competition, that member shall 
not serve, and the Governor of the Society of Mayflower Des- 
cendants in North Carolina and the Secretary of the State Lit- 
erary and Historical Association shall select a substitute. 

IX. AWARDS OF THE MAYFLOWER SOCIETY CUP 

1931 M. C. S. Noble, for History of the Public Schools in North 

Carolina. 

1932 Archibald Henderson, for Bernard Shaiv: Playboy and 

Prophet. 

1933 Rupert P. Vance, for Human Geography of the South. 

1934 Erich W. Zimmerman, for World Resources and Industries. 

1935 James Boyd, for Roll River. 

1936 Mitchell B. Garrett, for The Estates General of 1789. 

1937 Richard H. Shryock, for The Development of Modern 

Medicine. 

1938 Jonathan Daniels, for A Southerner Discovers the South. 

1939 Bernice Kelly Harris, for Purslane. 

1940 David L. Cohn, for The Good Old Days. 

1941 Wilbur J. Cash, for The Mind of the South. 

1942 Elbert Russell, for The History of Quakerism. 

1943 J. Saunders Redding, for No Day of Triumph. 

1944 Adelaide L. Fries, for The Road to Salem. 

1945 Josephus Daniels, for The Wilson Era: Years of Peace, 

1910-1917. 

1946 Josephina Niggli, for Mexican Village. 

1947 Robert E. Coker, for The Great Wide Sea. 

1948 Charles S. Sydnor, for The Development of Southern Sec- 

tionalism, 1819-1848. 

1949 Phillips Russell, for The Woman Who Rang the Bell. 

1950 Max Steele, for Debby. 



NORTH CAROLINA BOOKS FOR 1950 
By Dorothy Lloyd Gilbert 

I bring you no profound treatment of the literary life and the 
level of culture in North Carolina at mid-century, no close analy- 
sis of the principles which guide North Carolina writers, no 
infallible index to thought, but rather a brief survey of what 
North Carolina writers have done during the year. My point of 
view is that of the general reader — rather more general than 
usual — and not that of the professional critic. 

While I read these books with increasing interest, for I was 
seeking all the while for the one which would outshine myriads 
though bright and so receive the award, I experienced the pleas- 
ures of serendipity; that is, I sought for something and found 
something else. There appeared ten books or so which I felt I 
could describe without great exaggeration as being excellent. I 
will comment briefly on them. On my first round through these 
books, I endeavored to describe them all ; but the further I went, 
the more it seemed to me that my talk bore more than a passing 
resemblance to the progress of a bookmobile careening down a 
narrow road at the rate of one book a minute. Therefore, I have 
amended my plan, lined up these books according to library classi- 
fication and will proceed down the Carolina shelf for 1950, com- 
menting on some and doing little more than calling the roll on 
others. 

First these few observations : 

Scientific and technical works are excluded from the contest, 
so that the total output of North Carolina is not represented ; yet 
one trend does appear — that toward biographical writing. Of 
course within the past ten or twenty years there has been a great 
resurgence of interest in biography on the part of author and 
reader; yet the fact that at least eleven out of forty-two books 
of the year are biographical reflects more than the usual bio- 
graphical interest. Last year North Carolina writers discovered 
the tobacco industry, this year the great men. 

It is interesting to observe that North Carolina publishers and 
printers have collaborated on twenty-two of these books; five 
were published at Chapel Hill and the other seventeen here and 

C198] 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 199 

there over the state, rarely more than two from the same press. 
This interest within the state is balanced by the support given 
North Carolina scholarly works by national foundations. Frances 
Acomb held a fellowship from the American Association of Uni- 
versity Women. Edward Guerrant, John Hallowell, Harriet 
Herring, and Chalmers G. Davidson had grants made jointly by 
the Carnegie Corporation and their own institutions. Chalmers 
Davidson also had assistance from the Medical Association of 
South Carolina ; and Stuart Noblin was aided by The Progressive 
Farmer, whose founder he made the subject of his biography. 
The most magnificently supported work was Debby. Its author, 
Max Steele, held a fellowship awarded by the Eugene F. Saxton 
Memorial Trust while he was writing it and won the Harpers 
$10,000 prize with it. 

Now for the bookshelf — beginning with religion, the 200*8. 
Two of these books are by members of the faculty of the Divinity 
School at Duke, A Firm Faith for Today by Harold Bosley and 
Preaching in the Great Tradition by Ray C. Petry. Parables of 
Crisis is by Edwin McNeill Poteat, well-known in Raleigh, and 
Rise Up and Walk by Percy E. Lindley, Dean of High Point 
College for many years. Many sections of these books had their 
origins in lectures, addresses, sermons, or inspirational talks, 
and the reader feels the presence of the speaker: Dr. Poteat 
tosses questions at his audience rather frequently ; even Dr. Petry, 
dealing with the preaching of the Middle Ages, gives way to a 
little modern story — the four-year-old who wouldn't go down to 
the missionary tea because as she told Grandmother, "The 
preacher is there and you know I just can't take a chance of 
going down there and getting baptized." Of course the professor 
balances this incident immediately with a quotation from the 
venerable Bede to the effect that the teacher ought sometimes to 
preach and sometimes attend to his own concerns. Dr. Lindley 
uses illustration upon illustration and story upon story to prove 
his points, the principal one being that life offers great oppor- 
tunity to each young person, who needs only to rise up and walk 
the right paths to make his life happy and successful. 

To give the briefest suggestion of the content of the others : 
Dr. Bosley examines each article in the creed, affirming modern 



200 The North Carolina Historical Review 

man's faith in God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the Church, 
man, forgiveness of sin, reconciliation, the Kingdom of God, 
salvation, and immortality. The book is written in a clear, trans- 
parent style; each word says what it is intended to say; and 
through the sentences, which seem effortless, speaks the deeply 
sincere, the deeply thoughtful man who is here setting down the 
principles of his faith. I commend to you the last chapter, "We 
Believe in Immortality." 

Dr. Petry in his book, Preaching in the Great Tradition, brings 
in the great preachers of the Middle Ages and lets them preach 
(never at any great length), tell off the doubters or their fellow 
churchmen, and discuss their problems. Dr. Petry wears his 
learning lightly; he knows his preachers so well that he doesn't 
have to treat them solemnly — after all they are but older mem- 
bers of the same conference or synod. It is pleasant to see Saint 
Francis, Wulfstan, De Vitry, Bernard of Clairvaux face to face 
rather than through a stained glass window darkly. Dr. Petry 
has a nice turn of phrase : "So Meister Eckhart dropped people's 
jaws and dried up their tongues so they forgot to misunderstand 
what he meant." 

Dr. Poteat in his Parables of Crisis discusses sixteen of the last 
parables of Jesus, stressing the tensions of the time in which 
they were spoken and the comparable tensions of today. The em- 
phasis is often skeptical; for example, the Prodical Son gets 
a prodical brother who "suffers the dead weight of morose self- 
pity" and a prodigal father "who suffers the spiritual disabilities 
of moral shallowness. He indulged in an emotional spree when 
his boy came home. No wonder, who wouldn't. But it could easily 
have had a deleterious effect on both the sons. The elder son's 
sense of estrangement from the family was apparently exacer- 
bated by it." 

Dr. Poteat makes many such observations : shrewd, interesting, 
sound psychologically, worded with a nice adjustment of sound 
and sense, enlivened by the word or the imagination that spar- 
kles ; but the ancient simplicity has departed. 

The 300' s are represented by an excellent text, a series of 
lectures, and an extended case history — all on important subjects. 

The text, Main Currents in Modern Political Thought, was 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 201 

written by Dr. John H. Hallowell of Duke and was done not only 
for students who have difficulty in escaping textbook English 
but also for their elders, who can and do. It is clear, comprehen- 
sive, and interesting. If the word challenging were not so well 
worn, I'd use it. There is a theory behind it that makes it differ 
from most volumes on political theory. Dr. Hallowell believes 
"that there is both an intimate and logically necessary connection 
between one's metaphysical and theological presuppositions and 
his political theory/' and he shows that connection. 

The lectures are entitled Area and Administration and deal 
with the problems of government in relation to their geographical 
setting. Dr. Fesler opens a great field for study in these lectures 
and suggests that area and function will be reciprocally adjusted 
not by a single solution but by many and that the adjustment is 
a continuous process. 

Harriet Herring has made a thorough investigation of the sale 
of mill villages, interviewing hundreds of people in the process. 
The method gives validity to her book, The Passing of the Mill 
Village. An appendix explains the method ; another lists forty-one 
corporations which have already sold their mill villages and from 
whom Miss Herring obtained information. I am no sociologist, 
but even so untechnical a reader as I am can see the importance 
of this work in relation to southern life and industry. 

We'll take down three of the books of poetry and try their 
quality : Helen Bevington's book Nineteen Million Elephants has 
a wider range than any of the others: fine ironies, clever and 
unexpected literary allusions to delight the pedant's heart 
wrapped in the teacher's hide, expert poetry of nature, of child- 
hood, of travel by air — all done in the modern idiom. As Helen 
Bevington says in the poem, "Words are Anybody's," "Anything 
I say belongs to me." How right she is ! I want to read two poems, 
"Return from Summer," which illustrates the Bevington manner 
as usually seen, and "Refugee 1944," which shows a totally dif- 
ferent technique use, that of implying profound meaning with a 
few closely guarded, well-trimmed words. 



202 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Return from Summer 

Like Thoreau, I hate the sound 

Of my own footsteps. 

He would travel 

The grass, the woods, the leafy ground, 

Unsettled by the grit of gravel, 

Deserting pebbled roads for fear 

Of any scuffle he might hear. 

Infinities of goldenrod 

And huckleberry 

Kept him free 

Of needless racket where he trod, 

And, in the soft upholstery 

Of moss, of pine straw, as he went 

The quiet was magnificent. 

And since the summer fields are wide 
And carpeted 
Where I have been, 
Well-padded is the countryside 
To make an expedition in, 
I hate to walk this city street, 
Accompanied always by my feet. 

Refugee, 1944 

So lately has he come, there lies 
About his guarded tale surprise 
That words are speakable, that he 
May try them. Even openly. 

And of the world where he has been, 
His thought is cautious still, and thin, 
Lest to his listeners it give 
Precision to the narrative. 

Yet is his meaning never blurred 
By loss, the canceling of a word, 
When to his listeners the place 
Is too apparent in his face. 

Two other books of verse are good : Andrew Hewitt's Traveler 
to April and Merle Price's The Heart Has Its Daybreak. Andrew 
Hewitt's themes are the small melancholy pleasures in nature, 
the thin boundaries that divide this world and the world of 
spectres, the shortness of time. There is a twilight atmosphere in 
his poems, and winter is always coming on, for April is still far, 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 203 

far ahead. Nearly all are done with the light and delicate touch 
shown in this one entitled "Evening Bell." 

Evening Bell 

It is a heavy-tongued bell 
With neither faint nor swell 
Nor tremble, but that is well. 

The bell that strikes one tone 

Has a story of its own 

It tells to me, alive and alone : 

In the sad and grey churchyard 
By the yetv, under the sward 
Every man is sleeping hard. 

Merle Price writes of love. It is easy to compare her best poems 
with Emily Dickinson's in subject and with Sara Teasdale's in 
form; yet perhaps the most valid comparison is simply that her 
accents, like theirs, are valid, and nearly all that she writes is 
poetry. Both Andrew Hewitt and Merle Price write in a more 
conventional manner than Helen Bevington does. 

My True Love 

My halo is slightly tilted. 

Quite rakish, I'll admit, 

For I've just kissed my own true love 

And that's the cause of it. 

Considering present fashions, 
I'm dressed with quite a flair ; 
There's dew-drops for my ear-rings, 
Star bangles for my hair. 

Beyond a casual incidence 

My face is shining, truly, 

For I've just been with my true love. 

My heart is most unruly. 

If my radiance should blind you, 
Admit you'd like to be 
In the wild and tender atmosphere 
Of my true love and me. 

Russell Dicks in My Faith Looks Up sometimes catches the 
beautiful rhythms of the King James Version in his poems. 
Barbara (Mrs. Archibald) Henderson includes an excellent son- 



204 The North Carolina Historical Review 

net "Calling All Stations" in her collection, Wars and Rumors of 
War. The volumes, A Nightingale Singing, Zither of Many 
Strings, and Street Lights, are not what you would call selected 
poetry. There are lines as good as "We'll pluck no more the bitter- 
sweet nor asters in the fall" and as bad as 

Your presence is electric, uncanny, 
Psychic, charming, obtrusive, masculine 

I know when I'm mad I'm a dreadful sight, 

But I've got to stand up for what I think is right. 

This line would have delighted Pope, for it has twelve, not ten, 
low "words that creep in one dull line." As you may judge, 
these are casual writings, but on the whole they are not without 
their appeal, especially to those acquainted with the author. The 
same is true of Mr. Cline's poetry, The Heights of Home, most 
of which has appeared in his Sunday church bulletins in 
Carthage. 

From the 800's we move to the 900's — the histories. Seven 
titles are listed; some are books, some booklets — some written 
by practicing historians, some not. Those by historians are 
Anglophobia in France, 1763-1789, by Frances Acomb, assistant 
professor of history at Duke ; Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy 
by Edward 0. Guerrant, associate professor of international 
relations at Davidson ; and The Formation of the North Carolina 
Counties, 1663-19 US by David Leroy Corbitt, of the State Depart- 
ment of Archives and History. All are important books, the first 
because it confirms a long suspected fact that French thought 
in the age of revolution was strongly influenced by English 
liberalism. Incidentally, to her exact and exhaustive research 
Miss Acomb has added the grace of a fine prose style so clear 
and disciplined that the eighteenth century would be happy to 
claim it. The second book performs a fine service for students of 
Latin American policy, as Dr. Guerrant gathers and clarifies the 
vast amount of material bearing on Roosevelt's good neighbor 
policy. The third, Mr. Corbitt's book, straightens out the tangled 
history of the formation of North Carolina counties, once and for 
all. He sets the 116 counties which have existed in alphabetical 
order and deals with each by a formula which nearly always 
begins thus : "Wake was formed in 1770 from Johnston, Cumber- 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 205 

land and Orange. The act was to become effective March 12, 1771. 
It was named in honor of Margaret Wake, wife of William 
Tryon." The appendix reprints documents bearing on organiza- 
tion and a good series of maps illustrates the boundaries. It must 
be a pleasure to Mr. Corbitt to reflect that he has given students 
of North Carolina history an instrument as precise and useful 
as the slide rule. 

The other entries deal with informal or local aspects of history. 
Mary Moore Allen's North Carolina Sketches is part handbook, 
part guidebook, containing as it does a list of places of historical 
interest, among its other details. Mason Crum's book, The Story 
of Lake Junaluska, contains official papers as well as information 
on the history, traditions and usefulness of that center. Mildred 
and Edward Edmundson have issued two booklets under the title 
"Dramatizing Democracy." They contain short plays suitable 
for use in grade school history classes. John Parris in The Chero- 
kee Story presents a rapidly moving, well illustrated account of 
the Cherokees and the region in which they live. The book does 
credit to the Stephens Press, which issued it. 

Four of the seven historical works belong in the Carolina col- 
lection, but every one of the eleven biographical writings deals 
with a Carolinian, albeit three of them lived in South Carolina : 
Wade Hampton, John Christopher, and Peter Fayssoux. 

Manly Wade Wellman has written a fine and moving biography 
of Wade Hampton, calling it Giant in Gray. I believe that my ad- 
miration for the book is quite objective ; a Quaker born in Indiana 
does not have an inbred veneration for a military man from 
South Carolina. The book is the result of many years of study 
and research. It has the careful documentation that a good his- 
torical study requires, and it comes alive as successfully as the 
best historical novels do. The greatness of Wade Hampton in- 
creased with the years, and the characterization of the steadfast, 
toiling governor and the senator struggling to bring his state 
and the South through the disasters following the war is of 
greater significance than that of the general, important as he 
was. The book is highly detailed, and this plethora of detail is so 
well controlled that the reader is never overwhelmed by it. Mr. 
Wellman gives him the past, and he feels that he has seen another 
world as it really was. Historically minded reviewers object that 



206 The North Carolina Historical Review 

the Giant in Gray did not tower so high above his fellows as Mr. 
Wellman thinks, and these critics say that the author should 
have respected the stature of other generals ; the reader with his 
eyes on the indomitable figure of Wade Hampton does not miss 
the others. 

Chalmers G. Davidson and Dorothy Fremont Grant have pre- 
sented the careers of two important citizens of Charleston : Peter 
Fayssoux, about whom Dr. Davidson writes, is considered to be 
the father of South Carolina medicine; John England, Mrs. 
Grant's subject, was the first Catholic bishop to be sent to 
Charleston. Each of these books gives an adequate account of a 
career; each of them uses the subject's writing effectively. Dr. 
Fayssoux's letters to Dr. Benjamin Rush are especially in- 
teresting. 

The North Carolina biographies bring together an unusual 
quartet : Thomas Wolfe, William Henry Belk, Leonidas Lafayette 
Polk, and Allen Jay Maxwell. Only 1950's strange literary har- 
vest unites them in a common bond. Yet all do share one trait, the 
love of North Carolina, and all have contributed to the life and 
progress of the state. 

I am especially impressed by Agatha Boyd Adams's brief, ob- 
jective biography, Thomas Wolfe: Carolina Student. One of my 
students by way of suggestion and flattery once said to me, "Any- 
body can make out a hard examination on Shakespeare, but only 
a really good teacher can make a good, easy, sensible examina- 
tion." By paraphrase, any biographer finds it easier to deal with 
Wolfe at length than to reduce his massive personality and 
equally massive production to a ninety-page essay — clear, com- 
prehensive, unhurried, and appreciative. The emphasis is placed 
upon the university days, and the new material on Wolfe is in 
that part of the essay. It is extremely interesting to see the forms 
in which Wolfe's genius first expressed itself and the influences 
which acted upon Tom of the Mountains, the awkward, gangling 
youngster fifteen years old when he came down to the university. 
When he was editor of the Daily Tar Heel, an irate father 
stormed in to see him threatening to sue him because he had 
printed a picture of his daughter in a student's embrace. "Sir, 
you can't do that," said Wolfe calmly. "Why not?" shouted the 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 207 

father. "Because, sir, I am a minor," Wolfe answered, unfolding 
his full height of six feet, three inches. 

Mrs. Adams did not close her book with the university days, 
in spite of its title. It gives family background, teaching experi- 
ence and all, carrying his career to its conclusion. This is her 
final paragraph : 

"The mountains were his masters. 'They rimmed in life,' he 
had written. And now they rimmed his death with stately beauty 
and that magic sense of distance which had always kindled his 
spirit. The mountains held him fast in death, but beyond their 
outermost horizons roamed free the far-ranging creative spirit 
that could not die." 

LeGette Blythe's book on William Henry Belk and Stuart 
Noblin's on L. L. Polk are competent and interesting biographies. 
They are, at the same time, fine illustrations of the growth and 
development of North Carolina since the Civil War, for both of 
them show the career of the man in terms of progress in the 
South. 

William Henry Belk's story begins with the departure of his 
young father as the Yankees came nearer, with capture, and 
with death. Eighty-three years later the merchant of the South 
returned to the spot where his mother, her three little boys about 
her, had watched her husband out of sight. William Henry came 
back in a fine automobile to see the land owned and lost by his 
family but now his again; and times had surely changed! Mr. 
Blythe follows his career faithfully and well. He never loses sight 
of young Mrs. Belk's heroism, the great hardships of the early 
years, the steady toil that continued year by year without haste, 
without rest, the faith the Belks had in the men and women who 
worked for and with them, the emergence of a business as it 
typified the emergence of the new South. These give meaning to 
the story. The book is lavishly illustrated, and seventeen pictures 
of Belk stores really seem like a luxury, not a necessity ! 

Dr. Noblin's book opens in the middle of things with L. L. 
Polk making one of his great orations in behalf of the Farmers' 
Alliance to Kansas farmers in 1890, and the reader sees the sub- 
ject of the biography at the height of his powers. The scene is 
dramatic, the audience attentive, the orator eloquent: "There 



208 The North Carolina Historical Review 

shall be no Mason and Dixon line on the Alliance maps of the 
future. It shall be one nation and one flag, (applause) ." L. L. Polk 
could carry the audience with him ; he did it many times in life, 
and Dr. Noblin wisely lets him talk again : short, pithy sentences 
from letters, the ringing climax of the oration, the telling satire 
from the editorials and articles of The Progressive Farmer — all 
are used to advantage. The chapter on the founding of State 
College is particularly interesting, but with time so short, I can- 
not pause to quote. 

The Life and Works of Allen Jay Maxwell was written by 
Raymond C. Maxwell, son of Allen Jay. This book, in a concise 
and matter-of-fact way, traces the long career of A. J. Maxwell 
and reprints sixteen of his articles and addresses. 

There are three autobiographies: that charming volume, The 
Southern Part of Heaven by William Meade Prince, The Disad- 
vantages of Being a Preacher's Son by E. P. Holmes, and Night- 
fall by Lura Jimison Hampton. Mrs. Hampton writes simply and 
courageously of the vicissitudes of her life — she has been blind 
since she was seven years old. E. P. Holmes sets down scores of 
small incidents he has enjoyed, interspersing his own verses here 
and there and including his collection of epitaphs for good 
measure. 

Perhaps what The Southern Part of Heaven does for nearly 
every reader is to carry him back into his own childhood. You 
know you can't go home again, but mirabile dictu, William Meade 
Prince does it and takes you along into his own lost world. Sud- 
denly it becomes yours as well as his ! Do you remember the grave 
responsibility of investing ten cents all at one time in candy, 
"niarshmellers" among other things, the moral dilemma in de- 
ciding whether to return the extra piece surely included by mis- 
take or of enjoying it in guilt ; the incomprehensible adult — Mr. 
Prince's is the professor who always refused to buy one Post 
for the unfunny reason that he would buy six dozen or none; 
Ernest Thompson Seton and the wobbling wigwams Two Little 
Savages inspired ; the animal circus enjoyed by complacent pets 
and boys alike; football heroes; early adorations; the good dog 
Duke drunk on snake bite medicine — the list could go on and on. 
Of course Mr. Prince had one advantage — he lived in Chapel Hill, 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 209 

enchanted ground to be sure. But the setting doesn't really matter 

except that it does give opportunity for some very candid pictures 

of professors caught without their halos, as Horace Williams is. 

Much of the reader's delight in the book is due to the candor 

shown everywhere, and the author's ability to use that candor 

without seeming to stand back and say, "Now, isn't that 

cunning !" 

The one volume of collected biography is Lou Rogers's Tarheel 

Women, which contains brief sketches of thirty-nine women. 

Eleanor Dare is the first ; Jane Simpson McKimmon, who is still 

» 

living, is the last. The selections show good judgment, and the 
book is interesting and useful, valuable not only for the essays 
but for the bibliographies which are appended to each. The 
Woman's Club style of writing, easily identified by loose generali- 
zations, pleasant exaggerations, and a touch of the sentimental or 
the coy, crops up now and then, but Miss Rogers is to be congratu- 
lated on having undertaken such a fine project as this and having 
produced a useful book well grounded in sound and careful 
study and investigation. 

There are three books all by a single author, J. Ray Shute of 
Monroe, which have an autobiographical tone — perhaps they 
belong in this group. His Honor the Heretic consists of papers 
dealing with the mayor's defeat caused, he says, by objections 
to Unitarian beliefs. The Golden Dawn contains speeches made 
during the year following his "conversion" to Unitarianism. 
Twilight in the Temple is composed of four addresses made to 
fellow Masons. They are described on a book jacket as "great 
little books from a swift-moving pen," and their fluency is to be 
admired. 

There are five books of fiction, including one for children. 
Pawnee, written by Thelma Bell, illustrated by Coryden Bell, is 
a lively story of an eight-inch Indian doll, who in the manner of 
storybook dolls the world over assumes life, speech, and motion, 
gets into mischief, runs away from home, and goes to live with 
the Indians. Pawnee makes an attractive book : text, illustrations, 
format, and all; I believe the younger circle will enjoy it. 

Dog on the Sun, Paul Green's collection of short stories, takes 
its place among the best of his works. The language as always is 



210 The North Carolina Historical Review 

beautifully accurate, no matter whether it is that of the character 
shown in the story or that of the poet who is writing the stories. 
This is the conclusion of "Sun Go Down" : 

Now the father looked down at his son and his eyes were bright 
and stern. "You done seen what it is to be a poor nigger. Hear 
me." And turning, he strode out of the stable, forgetting to close 
the door. So fast he went that the cobweb hanging down from a 
crack in the loft swayed in the wind. The boy stood watching him 
go. 

And loud like thunder he had heard him. 

The stories show a wide range, but whether they deal with 
matters of legend, with life which is brutal or drab and horrible, 
or with the university town, they bring the eternal note of 
sadness in. They are compassionate, ironic, angry that men must 
suffer as these do — and have their suffering disregarded. What 
Paul Green thinks of the professor who deals abstractly with the 
Negro problem or who collects a new folk song at the funeral of 
a promising young Negro ought to cause discomfort in academic 
circles. 

Max Steele has written a surprising first novel ; there was 
never before such a heroine as Debby. Wordsworth always be- 
lieved that the simple person had an innate goodness and wisdom 
proceeding from his closeness to nature, and he yearned to prove 
that a person without much intellect could still have significance 
and could by nature speak the language of poetry. But even 
Coleridge wasn't impressed by the poem about the idiot boy. 
Debby has more understanding than Wordsworth's boy had 
but not much. Her instinctive goodness, her devotion, her 
reaction to troubled children, and her one and only perception 
that love and tranquility make the only basis for satisfactory 
human relationships go a long way toward proving Wordsworth's 
theory — waiting these one hundred and fifty years for just one 
good example — but even now Debby doesn't speak the pure poetry 
Wordsworth hoped for. 

Max Steele doesn't moralize over Debby; he tells the story 
straight. That fact and his fine simplicity are the bases of his 
artistry. The simplicity is in style and in plot as well ; the story 
can't be highly complicated — Debby wouldn't be equal to com- 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 211 

plexities. Her joys and sorrows must be small even as her world 
is limited to one house and its occupants. Tragedy could come to 
her very quickly. Even in a small world, she is constantly in 
danger of losing her sense of reality and must touch herself again 
and again to make sure that she exists. Her anchor is Mrs. Mer- 
rill — she wants to dress like her, to help her forever — she can't 
live after Mrs. Merrill dies. The humor which helps to carry the 
books lies frequently in Debby's solemn, naive words and in the 
incongruity of situations she can create. Absorbed in her task, 
Debby followed the bride down the aisle and fixed the folds of 
the veil at the moment when the bride spoke her vows. 

James Street this year added another book to the Dabney series. 
This one leaves the Mississippi setting and moves to Havana. The 
time is 1895-96. Mingo Dabney meets a wide variety of un- 
desirables; he becomes involved in revolution and intrigue, plot 
and counterplot. Added to these complications there is another; 
he is in love with a gorgeous Cuban patriot. Joan of Arc and 
Mary of Scotland are pale beside her. Now that is Mingo Dab- 
ney's situation ! 

The setting of Peter Taylor's first novel is St. Louis in the 
1920 , s. He chooses to tell the story through a narrator who 
is the twelve-year-old stepson of the Woman of Means. This boy, 
Quintus Dudley, is quite a good character and he becomes the 
center ; however, his lack of understanding keeps the story from 
being fully realized by a casual reader. The book is very nicely 
written and its subtlety gives it the charm by thought supplied. 

Here then are our forty-two books for the year, viewed, I hope, 
somewhat in the spirit in which they were written. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE HISTORICAL DRAMA 

"UNTO THESE HILLS" 

By George Myers Stephens 

As a special courtesy to the vice president from over the Blue 
Ridge, your good secretary has allowed me to tell you something 
about the beginnings of the historical drama at Cherokee, "Unto 
These Hills." I begin by stating that this outdoor theatre at the 
foot of the Smokies had the best fortune it will ever have on 
weather — fifty-four evening performances without one cancel- 
lation on account of rain, albeit some of you who attended may 
remember some heavy dew. If I tell a few things which many of 
you know already, you must forgive it. Many Americans don't 
know as much as you do. I am thinking of the experience of 
George Owl of Cherokee, a member of a remarkable family of 
preachers and educators. George had just returned from the 
University of Oklahoma where his wife is professor of French. 
He was strolling about the village and chatting (doubtless in 
Cherokee) with some of his boyhood friends. A tourist with can- 
did camera warily circled the group of chatting Cherokees to get 
an angle for a picture. Then he cautiously advanced with right 
hand upraised in signal of peace and said "how," much to the 
amusement of the group. 

One thing most North Carolinians now T know is that "Unto 
These Hills" marked a new view ahead on the long trail for the 
Eastern Cherokees. These mountaineers of the South once held 
the highlands from Kentucky to mid-Georgia. Known as one of 
the P^ive Civilized Tribes, they lived in houses and were develop- 
ing a town life. Thus they were ready to adopt the tools and looms 
of the white pioneer, and even his ideas of representative govern- 
ment. Numbers of explorers settled and married among the 
Cherokees giving their good Scottish names to sons who became 
chiefs. When the white settlements pushed westward the Chero- 
kee withdrew behind two mountain ranges around the Great 
Smokies. 

As Kermit Hunter's drama of their contact with the white man 
shows, Cherokee leaders counseled moderation instead of mas- 

[ 212 j 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 213 

sacre after their first few years of desperate resistance. In the 
impressive council in the second scene of the play, Sequoyah calls 
for patience, returning good for evil, and fitting the red man's life 
into the future patternof America. 

And for this steadfastness of character, history has bestowed 
upon them one of its peculiar rewards. Of the great body of Chero- 
kees who moved west by voluntary and later forced migration, 
many found themselves two generations later holding oil lands 
in the new state of Oklahoma. And the handful of refugees who 
clung tightly as lichens to the cliffs of the Great Smokies found 
themselves three generations later astride the eastern gateway 
to America's most visited national park. Col. William Holland 
Thomas had found this land for his Cherokee friends along the 
beautiful valley of the Oconaluftee, after the grim days of the 
Trail of Tears. 

Here on Soco Creek and in Big Cove the thousand refugees 
from General Winfield Scott's removal round-up had lived quietly 
for a hundred years. From the steep mountain fields they got 
their varicolored Indian corn for bread, together with beans and 
squash. From the streams roaring out of the Smokies they caught 
trout, and in the forest they killed groundhog and turkey. 

By the time of the opening of the Great Smoky Mountains 
National Park in 1940 the Eastern Cherokees had increased to 
more than 3,000. Their land was intact, for the title was held 
by the tribal council. By a wise law, this land could not be sold 
to a white man. And the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was 
a corporation under the friendly protection of the state of North 
Carolina. Meanwhile the United States government through the 
Indian Service had built up at Cherokee a health center and high 
school with strong vocational training in homemaking, farming, 
and handicrafts, and the Indians had continued on friendly terms 
with their white neighbors. Thus it was natural in 1946, when the 
eleven westernmost counties organized Western North Carolina 
Associated Communities, that a plan to develop the resources of 
the Cherokees should be among the first recommended by the 
project committee. 

The first step was, of course, to get the best advice available. 
Our thoughts turned toward the people who had created "The 



214 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Lost Colony." Paul Green was generous in discussing the idea. 
This was followed by a visit to Cherokee by Samuel Selden. Many 
think this visit marked the turning point in a series of connec- 
tions with good fortune and good people. Meeting with the tribal 
representatives and with the project committee of the Associ- 
ated Communities, Mr. Selden gave some idea of the cost involved 
and of the physical requirements for an outdoor theatre. Then 
the party strolled out to the well-known Indian Fairground on 
Highway 107 entering the Park. In his quiet way, Mr. Selden 
suggested that a search up the nearby ravine might be worth- 
while. After a few hundred yards up a winding path, the ravine 
abruptly opened into the form of a natural amphitheatre. "This 
is the place," said Mr. Selden, and so it was. The preliminary 
tests on acoustics were confirmed later when the 2,800-seat 
theatre proved to be almost perfect acoustically. Spectators on 
the back row can hear every word from the stage. No amplifiers 
have been used except for the narrator and organ. 

The requirements outlined by Mr. Selden seemed staggering to 
a group of mountain communities. However, the ablest business 
leaders in each county went to work, and soon more than $20,000 
had been subscribed. Mr. Selden found the playwright and the 
director in the happy choices of Kermit Hunter and Harry Davis 
of Chapel Hill, and Albert Bell of Manteo for theatre designer. 
Foster Fitzsimmons of Chapel Hill began" plans for the dancing. 

The Cherokee Historical Association was chartered as a non- 
profit corporation under the laws of North Carolina, with a board 
of twenty-one trustees including the governor, Mr. Selden, repre- 
sentatives from the Cherokee Tribal Council, and citizens from 
several western counties. 

Here again the Cherokee Association was favored with good 
fortune in the people who were willing to work for it. The chair- 
man was Mr. Harry Buchanan of Hendersonville, born and 
reared in Jackson County a few miles from the Cherokee Indians 
and with a career of practical theatre experience. The vice-chair- 
man was Mr. Percy Ferebee of Andrews, president of the Asso- 
ciated Communities organization, and well known in banking 
circles and public life. Mrs. Molly Arneach, a Cherokee Indian, 
served as secretary, and the treasurer was Mr. Joseph E. Jen- 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 215 

nings, superintendent of the Indian Agency at Cherokee. In the 
Cherokee community itself the theatre construction had Ross 
Caldwell, a landscape architect and engineer, with not only the 
ideal technical knowledge but such a love for nature that the 
original forest trees grow on the stage itself and a brook tinkles 
behind the backdrop. For the grading and approach road con- 
struction the Indian Service made a gifted engineer available in 
Col. Milletts. Mr. Buchanan's theatre operating company granted 
his plea for loan of its pioneer drive-in theatre manager, Mr. 
Carol White, for general manager. The all-important money 
raising was directed by the Associated Communities project 
committee chairman, Mr. Francis J. Heazel of Asheville. Public 
relations and other functions were divided on a voluntary basis 
until general manager White could take charge and promotion 
director Edward Carl Sink could begin work. 

The genius of the Cherokee Indians themselves contributed in a 
large way. A composer of Cherokee descent was found — Jack 
Frederick Kilpatrick of the music faculty at Southern Methodist 
University in Dallas. The Indian School at Cherokee had in its 
homemaking department the teachers and the students to help 
with making costumes, while the manual arts department was 
able to make many of the stage properties, including the wonder- 
ful shiny armor worn by De Soto's soldiers. With this help Su- 
zanne (Mrs. Harry) Davis of Chapel Hill was able to do a superb 
work of costume designing and making with a modest budget. 

When, in the fall of 1948, it appeared that the Western North 
Carolina money was assured, Chairman Buchanan was author- 
ized to ask the General Assembly to support this act of faith 
with an appropriation to cover theatre equipment and produc- 
tion. He came away with the only unanimously voted appropria- 
tion item during the session — $35,000. Generous extensions of 
credit, goods, and services somehow kept theatre construction 
and stage production work going, so that the miracle really hap- 
pened — the play opened on the first day of July, 1950. 

With a fanfare for distinguished official visitors and a sprinkle 
of rain, the first performance went through beautifully. As the 
theatre went dark and the walls of mountains showed against 
the sky, Kilpatrick's organ and choral prelude filled the quiet 
crowd with the mood of the Indian past. It gave much the same 



216 The North Carolina Historical Review 

feeling of the "Woodland Sketches" of America's composer, Ed- 
ward McDowell, at whose colony Kilpatrick had studied. Then the 
words of the narrator set the background of the drama and the 
action began. People of a Cherokee village burst into ecstatic 
dance, to be interrupted by the marching song of De Soto's 
armored men. 

After the calm of the opening is broken by the Spaniards, a 
council of chiefs nearly 300 years later makes the fateful decision 
for the Cherokees which sets the theme of the play. Wise old 
Sequoyah tells his people to look at a future in which they must 
work with the white man and on occasion even to return good 
for evil. Though the war chiefs attempt to follow the lead of 
Tecumseh from the North, Sequoyah's advice prevails. 

Through the agony of the next generation the chiefs see selfish 
white men abuse and dispossess their people, and, after their old 
friend Andrew Jackson fails them, they are driven westward by 
the soldiers. The incident of Tsali's escape and dramatic return 
for execution before a firing squad is already widely known. It 
forms the high point of emotion in the play. 

Then follow scenes which show the gradual reward of the 
Cherokees for their belief in moderation and peace. The play 
closes with a triumphant choral passage and the lights come on. 
As one rises to leave, the sights about him form an impressive 
epilogue to this drama of the Cherokees. 

The play's dramatic but well-balanced picturing of Cherokee 
history has made a schoolbook subject come alive for the Ameri- 
can people. Among the Cherokees it has reawakened an interest 
in their language and their culture. There is talk of reviving 
publication of the Cherokee Phoenix, a newspaper printed in the 
remarkable syllabary of eighty-five characters devised by Se- 
quoyah. 

A museum of Indian life has opened with a Cherokee collection 
not equaled outside the Smithsonian. Librarians in the western 
counties sponsor Cherokee reading clubs for young people. Sev- 
eral books and pamphlets have been published or are in prepara- 
tion, including the play itself. Among the actors in the play are 
three Cherokees with leading parts, while more are in group 
scenes. Altogether, 114 Indians were on the production's payroll 



Papers from the Fiftieth Annual Session 217 

and drew more than $20,000 in salaries the first season. Building 
of the theatre was done almost wholly by Cherokee masons, car- 
penters, and laborers who earned $25,000 in this work. The 
Tribal Council, which invested $5,000 by securing rights to the 
site for the theatre, brought back to Cherokees in the community 
payroll about ten dollars for every dollar invested. 

Overnight a larger demand has come for Indian handicrafts 
and for visitor accommodations. In this growth the surrounding 
communities share. A night's audience finds good tourist accom- 
modations within an hour and a half's drive of the theatre — 
Andrews on the west, Franklin on the south, and Waynesville 
and Asheville on the east. Sylva and Bryson City are only a few 
minutes' drive from Cherokee. Across the Smokies, Gatlinburg 
also helps to care for the theatre crowds. 

Nearly every state and several foreign countries were repre- 
sented in the 107,140 persons who paid to see the play. The 
revenue enabled the Association to clear its debts. A rain shelter 
behind the rear seats was built, so that few spectators asked for 
refund when they had this protection during the brief showers. 
All seats are to be reserved and have chair backs next season. 
Improvements are planned in walkways, stages, costumes, and 
size of cast. Through help of the Indian Service and the State 
Highway Commission, the approach roads are already paved and 
there is a large parking area near the box office. Reserves are 
waiting to cover production costs when the play rehearsals begin, 
with the opening date scheduled for June 23. Shows are to be 
Tuesdays through Sundays until Labor Day. Virtually the same 
staff is to carry on for 1951, except for the new public relations 
director. He is John Parris, author and foreign correspon- 
dent, who returns to his native hills after war duty with the 
Associated Press. 

These facts themselves are a part of the Cherokee story, the 
reward for the character and tolerance of a people who preserved 
the white man of Western North Carolina as their friend. 

Perhaps it was musing on this long contact with white people 
which stirred the humor of a Cherokee mother. As she sat 
through the play with her 'teen-age youngsters, her conversation 
made it clear that the father of the family, who was not at the 



218 The North Carolina Historical Review 

play, was a white man. Her final remark to the children was, 
"I just didn't know till now how mean these white people can be. 
When I get home I am going to beat the tar out of my old man." 



LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA 
TO ANDREW JOHNSON 

Edited by 
Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 

[Continued] 

From Kenneth Rayner 

Raleigh - N°. C.* 
April 6^-1866- 

Confidential 

My dear Sir 

Through the kind interposition of a friend- Mr. Warall 0. 
Roberts of New York- the Mess : Appleton agreed to undertake 
the publication of the ivork, which I casually mentioned to you 
last Fall- and about which Judge Patterson and myself have been 
corresponding. I requested the Mess: Appleton, to forward the 
advance proof sheets to Judge Patterson, every two or three days ; 
that he might read them, and make such corrections, as in his 
judgment, he may think proper. 60 If it is worth publishing at all, 
why then, it is necessary, it shall be all right. Owing to the cir- 
cumstances of the case, the book will probably be very extensively 
read. 61 There is at this time, a morbid anxiety, to know all about 
your character, your antecedents &c- If I known myself, my ob- 
ject was to do good- to prove, that the interests of the North and 
the South were identified - and that, through the force of cir- 
cumstances, you occupied the position of mediator, to bring about 
harmony and concord between the sections. 

I felt it was to be regretted, that owing to the pressure on your 
time, you could not possibly look over the manuscript, before it 
went to press- I was particularly anxious to say nothing, that 
might be imprudent for, of course any thing said in your vindica- 
tion or advocacy, will be closely criticised, in certain quarters. 

In regard to that position, referring to the events of your 
personal life- and also that, referring to your Congressional life— 
I hope you will see but little to disapprove of. It is mostly narra- 
tive, followed by such comments as the occasion called for. A 
large part of the work is a disquisition , on your scheme of policy 
for the restoration of the union. I have discussed it from the 
stand-point of your own argument - and have been very cautious 
to try and avoid all inadvertence or imprudence , which might 

•"David Trotter Patterson (1818-1891) was educated in the common schools of Tennessee 
and Greeneville College; was admitted to the bar; practiced law in Greeneville; engaged in 
manufacturing; was judge of the first circuit court of Tennessee, 1854-1863; was Senator 
from Tennessee from July 24, 1866, to March 8, 1869; and engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
In 1855 he married Martha Johnson, daughter of Andrew Johnson. Biographical Director of 
the American Congress, 1774-1927, 1889. 

81 Kenneth Rayner's Life and Times of Andrew Johnson . . . was published by Appleton 
and Company. The first edition sold rapidly and a second edition was printed. 

[219] 



220 The North Carolina Historical Review 

possibly compromise your position before the country. I have 
urged upon Judge Patterson, to modify, amend, or leave out, any 
portion, that he may think good policy would require, should be 
done. This I hope he will not fail to do ; and when his own Judg- 
ment is at fault, I hope he will request your opinion. 

I have endeavored to avoid harshness, bitterness, and se- 
verity. 'Tis true, I have been severe on the originall plotters and 
conspirators of Disunion and secession - also on Prest. Buc- 
hanan's shortcomings in 1860-'61 - and on the London Quarterly 
review, for its Jesuitical article in regard to the war, and its 
ungenerous assault on yourself- In the main I have consulted 
a feeling of conciliation, between the North & the south - and 
between your friends and the republicans, who are disposed to 
find fault with you- 

The style of the composition in regard to yourself personally - 
is that of high paregyric, of course. No one is expected to write 
a memoir of any distinguished man, unless he has something good 
to say of him - In this regard, I must beg your pardon - one 
thing is certain, I have said nothing more, than what I believed 
and felt, under the circumstances, to be just and true. 

I am almost afraid I have made the work too large. It will make 
500 pages of large duodecimo size. I sent on to the publishers, two 
days since, some 60 pages of additional manuscript - but owing 
to my fears, that the book might be too large, I had to leave it 
to the discretion of the publishers, as to whether they would in- 
clude it in the book. This last is a calm and unprejudiced view, of 
the influences acting on the minds of the Southern people, through 
which they blundered into that most woful and tragical of all 
mistakes (to call it by no more names) that a sane people ever 
committed. I shall regret it, if this last cannot appear in the body 
of the work ; for I am rather pleased with the exposition I have 
presented - and I believe, it will find an approving response from 
the great conservative body of the Southern people, themselves. 

Of course, I feel a deep interest in the fate of my book. I expect 
nothing else, than to be roundly abused by the extreme and radi- 
cal men, both North and South. The work is written from a high 
national stand-point. If it meets with the approval of moderate, 
conservative, and rational men, in both sections- I shall have an 
assurance, that its tone, temper, and style are what they ought 
to be. 

I can only repeat, what I stated to you, last Fall- that if ever 
there was a people, who looked up to any man, as their friend and 
father-as their only hope in their day of despondency and gloom, 
such is the Southern people, at the present time, and you are the 
man. It is not, that they regard you as Southern in your pro- 
clivities and feelings- but as a National man, and as a National 
President, and yet, the Southern people feel, that it would not be 
prudent, to give expression to any thing like jubilation and tri- 
umph. With calm and quiet hope and resignation, they await the 
developments of the future. I really wish the ultra radical element 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 221 

of the North, could see the Southern people, Just as they are, 
ruined, crushed , and broken-spirited. As I told many Northern 
men, in the late trip to the North -- if they could see the real and 
true condition of the South, as it is - their resentments would 
be disavowed - there would be nothing to feed resentment on - 
sympathy would take the place of every thing like unkindness. 1 
wish the day could arrive, when the Southern people could give 
expression, through the ballot-box, to those feelings of unalloyed 
confidence and hope, which they entertain for yourself. 

I beg pardon, Mr. President, for annoying you with this long- 
letter. I have duly appreciated the constant engagements on your 
time. I am aware, that your onerous duties monopolise all your 
time. I have abstained from troubling you- anxious as I was , to 
secure an interest by you, in this forthcoming work. If I shall 
have done any thing, towards promoting harmony between the 
two sections- if I shall have done any thing, towards awakening 
the public mind, to a proper appreciation of your sacrifices, your 
trials, difficulties and labors, in your embarrasing position - I 
shall be more than gratified at the reflection, that I have effected 
some little of good, for my country .- 

With most profound respect. 
Your obedient serv. 1 

His Excellency Andrew Johnson 
President &C 

April 10- 
Your second veto has been received and read by our people 
-followed by depressing news, that the bill had passed the Senate, 
by a majority of more than two thirds, on the question of re- 
consideration. The state of feeling among our people is difficult 
to describe. It is not excitement - not at all. The days of excite- 
ment are at an end in the South. The predominant feeling is one 
of deep and despondent anxiety. There is nothing seen or heard, 
of any thing like a definite hope or prospect of our future. You 
and you alone are on every lip, and in every heart. We feel that 
our destiny, is , under providential dispensation, in your hands ; 
and that all we can do, in our present, poor, unfortunate, and 
powerless condition, is to wait calmly and resignedly ; and to pray 
that you may be sustained, by a Higher Power, in your efforts to 
preserve the constitution, and save the institutions of our fathers, 
from overthrow and ruin. This point, I have constantly in view 
throughout the work I have written - viz : that your efforts to 
restore and preserve the union, were in perfect consistency and 
harmony with the views you had enunciated, from the beginning 
of the struggle - that you had been governed by system, perfectly 
in accord with the recorded sentiments of your past life. The 
portion of the work, I indulge the hope, will meet with your ap- 
probation. And herein is the great moral strength of our position. 



222 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Your enemies can not charge you with inconsistency -or with 
having misled any one, in regard to your course. 

There is one feeling, that seems to prevail, with almost entire 
unanimity, among the Southern people. And that is a strong and 
abiding faith , in your ultimate triumph and success. This is all 
that sustains them against almost absolute despair. They have no 
defined plans, purposes, or calculations, as to the future "Presi- 
dent Johnson is our only hope" - is the only comment indulged 
in , in reference to the startling events , developed from day to 
day. 

Unless there is some special cause for the influences operating 
on public opinion, in Connecticut - the result of the election in 
that state is most cheering. If we are allowed to hope, that a 
similar condition of affairs prevails in the other Northern states, 
there is great chance for the success of constitutional princi- 
ples, when the people shall have reflected, and spoke through 
the ballot-box. If there be any men of national views and feelings, 
I know I belong to that class. And yet when I reflect on the sad, 
and suffering, and disconsolate condition of the South, wrong and 
misguided as it has been I can only exclaim - "May God in his 
mercy save my poor native land from ruin !" - very respectf ully- 
K.R> 



Prom Jonathan Worth 

State of North Carolina, 
Executive Department, 
Raleigh, April 17th 1866. 

To His Excellency, 

Andrew Johnson, 

President of the U.S.- 

Sir:- 

I herewith enclose a copy of a communication addressed to me 
by the Hon. Daniel G. Fowle, one of the Judges of the Superior 
Court of Law of this State. 62 I enclose it to you for the purpose 
of soliciting your views in relation to the matters therein con- 
tained. 

You will perceive that an early answer is very desirable. 

I avail myself of the occasion to assure you of the universal 
desire of the authorities and people of this State to sustain you 
in carrying out your plans of restoration, from a firm conviction 
that they tend to the best interests of the whole nation. 

I have the honor to be, Very Respectfully, 

Your Obedient Servant, 
Gov r of N C 

«* Civil court action was subject to review by tbe military authorities. Being opposed to the 
enforcement of military orders that were contrary to the state laws. Judge Fowle resigned. 
Hamilton. Reconstruction, 238. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 223 

From David F. Caldwell 

Greensboro N C May 12 [18] 66 
His Exelency 
Andrew Johnston President of The United States of America 

Will you pardon your old Bank Correspondent to say one word 
to your exelency I have ever been an ultra union man, and for 
opposing secession tvas moled before the war and twice since 
Have been shot at wounded & beten with clubs & I blush to say 
it pelted by a crowd of boys and ladies with rotten eggs for my 
union principals &C- Yet I am no black Republican & never shall 
be I will add I was held up in the papers as the "Andy Johnston 
of N C" I want nor ask for no office- and when I say I sup[p]ort 
your administration policy I assure you I do so because I think 
it best for our country- And for this reason I desire to see you 
sustained & will do all I can to secure it success- I have been 18 
years a member of our stat[e] Legislature twice Presidential 
elector & am now a member of our state convention and have 
some little influence- I have had three especal correspondents 
of the fanatical press to call upon me, who have indeavored to 
persuad[e] me to take sides against your policy I have been 
assured if I would do so I would be genaly the gainer in a poli- 
ticians point of view- And as an old line Whig I should not hesi- 
tate for a moment, when Holden a secession Democrat was doing 
all he could for them &C &C These gentel hints I treated in the 
way I thought they deserved. 

Now in 1848 Van Buren & Adams run on a platform in which 
was the resolution of 98-99 so Fremont 63 & Daton 64 run on a Plat- 
form in which was the same Resolution of 98, 99 All the anti- 
slavery resolutions of the free states has been based on States 
Rights doctrine-First acted up by the Hartford Convention &C 
&C So New England is the author of Secession The Author of 
slave importation & exportation Author of Abolition & insurrec- 
tion & extreminity 2112 & colonisation sosity in the South- & 
consequently all our rigorous laws on the subject of slavery- 
Also authors of Anti Masonry But the point I wish to bring to 
your notice & press upon you is this- Sumner, Wilson, Banks, 
Stephens &C- are all , not only op [p] osed to the Union now, but 
have always been ready to let it slide. 65 They were united on the 
No Nothing Anti Catholic platform But now go for Negroes 

"John Charles Fremont (1813-1890), explorer, soldier, and politician, married Jessie Ben- 
ton, daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton who was born in Orange County, North 
Carolina. Fremont played a leading role in the conquest of California. In 1856 Fremont was 
defeated for President of the United States by James Buchanan by an electoral vote of 174 
to 114 and by a popular vote of 1,838,169 to 1,341,264, which was in part due to the fear of 
southern secession and to insufficient campaign funds. Dictionary of American Biography, 
VII, 19-23. 

•* William Lewis Dayton, United States Senator and attorney general of New Jersey, was 
a candidate for Vice President in 1856 with Fremont and was an unsuccessful candidate for 
the Republican nomination for President in 1860. The next year he was appointed as Minister 
from the United States to France. Through his influence France did not permit the Con- 
federate government to use French ports. Likewise he succeeded in preventing the construc- 
tion of six southern war vessels in France. Dictionary of American Biography, V, 166-167. 

88 Undoubtedly reference is to Thaddeus Stevens rather than to Alexander H. Stephens. 



224 The North Carolina Historical Review 

suffrage & equality in statutes whether the states will permit or 
not- Now it seems to me of all your friends would but post them- 
selves thoroughly as to the past Anti Masons No Nothing Record 
of thes [e] Ultras - And simultaneously in Congress & through the 
press open upon them & keep up the fires upon them, we could do 
much to sustain your administration & policy and perpetuate our 
form of Government & free institutions - These men are for 
pushing up the negroes at once & forever above the poor union 
white men of the South- who are now degraded and oppressed 
by their poverty- In short I assure you that the ultra course 
taken by Sumner- Wilson Stevens & others is fast rendering the 
Union men odious instead of Traitors Odious - For the reason 
that these Northeners are taking precisely the course the dis- 
unionist predicted they would if they conquered or we submitted- 
while the union men declared we would welcome back and the 
fated calf would be killed- Had we all gone back at once Republi- 
cans & the party would have been enthroned in power & the 
hearts of the people- But Alas this was not done And if mat [t] ers 
progress in the way proposed I know that masses will become 
confused in their prejudices Pardon all I may have said amiss & 
believe me to [be] your sincere friend & well wisher 

Truly 
A Johnston 
President U States 



From James H. Fry 

Headquarters War Department 
The following Telegram received 11 A. M. May 24 th 1866 
From Raleigh N.C. May 24, 1866 
His Excellency 
Andrew Johnson 
Prest U.S. 

Sir, I am here as a delegate to the state convention Am I per- 
mitted to take my seat: Please answer immediately 66 



From David L. Swain 

University of North Carolina 
Chapel Hill, June 9th. 1866. 

Sir, 

I have the honor to inform you, that at the annual Commence- 

60 On May 22, 1866, Governor Worth telegraphed President Johnson that Governor Holden 
had on October 20, 1865, recommended the pardon of James H. Fry of Onslow County, and 
soon thereafter stated that his pardon had been granted. As Fry had never received his 
pardon, it was necessary to ret a duplicate. Hamilton, Correspondence of Johnathan Worth, 
I. 696-596. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 225 

merit of this Institution on the 7th inst., the Academic Senate, 
in consideration of the eminent services rendered to our native 
State and our common country in the performance of the most 
important and arduous duties, in great emergences and under 
the most trying circumstances, have conferred upon you the high- 
est literary distinction which it is in their power to bestow- the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 

It affords me pleasure to add, that the vote on the part of the 
Faculty as well as the Trustee, was entirely and heartily unani- 
mous. 

I am very sincerely & truly, 
Your friend & Servt., 
To Andrews Johnston 
President of the United States. 



From William W. Holden 

Headquarters War Dept 
The following Telegram received 7 P.M., June 21 st 1866 

From Raleigh N.C. June 21 yt 1866. 
The President 
of the U.S. 
Sir: 

Many thanks for your kindness in making nomination I hope 
to be in Washington soon 

Very Respectfully 



From Kenneth Rayner 

New York, July 2- d 1866. 
His Excellency Andrew Johnson, 

President D.~ 
Dear Sir, 

I forward to you, by to-day's mail two copies of "The Life and 
times of Andrew Johnson." One of them you will please accept, 
as an humble testimonial of my high appreciation of your public 
character as a Statesman and Patriot, and of your private virtues 
as a man. The other you will present to Mrs. Johnson, in my 
name. I hope she will pardon the liberty I thus take. I have not 
the honor of personally knowing her, but, having made a most 
respectful mention of her name in the book, I wish to offer this 
humble tribute to the virtues of her character, as wife, mother, 
and friend.- 

It is the impression here, that the work will be in demand and 
have a wide circulation, as soon as the political canvasses of the 



226 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Fall are opened. In the mean time, it is to be hoped, your friends 
will use the necessary appliances, in having the book brought 
favorably, to the notice of the reading public- 

I leave here in a day or two, for my home in Raleigh, there to 
make arrangements for finally leaving the state, and taking up 
by abode in the South -West - probably in Mississippi. 

May our all-wise and merciful Providence protect and bless 
you, in your efforts to save the constitutional rights and liberties 
of your country, is the prayer of 

Your friend, and obed nt . Servant 

P.S. My friend, Mr. Thos. McEbrath has at my suggestion, 
forwarded to you divers testimonials in his behalf, in reference to 
the appointment of "Naval officer", of this Port- 

K.R. 



From L. S. Ruggles 

Statesville, N.C. July 9 th 1866. 
Andrew Johnston 
President of the U. States, 

Pardon the presumption of one who though personally a 
stranger, addresses you to day upon a subject near to her own 
heart. Thrice have I taken my pen, and as many times laid it 
aside, despairingly, as the suggestive thought intruded. How can 
he, who now sits in the chair of Washington, surrounded by al- 
most or equally as many dangers and difficulties as threatened the 
infant Republic whose wisdom and patience are hourly tried while 
he boldly, calmly and fearlessly guides the helm of State over yawn- 
ing gulfs and dangerous breakers, unmoved by entreaties un- 
daunted by angry, howling storms- how can he interest himself 
in you or what concerns yours : But, Sir, my heart whispers write 
I will, write I must ; and may God bless the effort. 

I have a brother, noble, generous, brave, He was an officer 
in the U.S. Army- he has been an officer in the rebellion. I have 
faith to believe, that when the war began he loved the North, 
he loved the South. His home his family, his friends, his interests 
South, bitterly opposed in principle to the agitations of what 
was then styled the abolition party, and yet obliged to fight, he 
like many others, chose the South, perilled all, and lost. 

These however are but the ideas of a woman, of a sister who 
loves him, but who has never heard him speak upon the subject, 
nor has she even seen him or received a letter from him for many 
months. 

Without means, and a large family to provide for, as a paroled 
soldier, he has not the unrestrained and unembarrassed freedom, 
which interest and pleasure may sometimes demand. 

He is one of the class, you will perceive that falls without the 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 227 

prescribed limits of the "Amnesty Proclamation;" through you 
only therefore, can I hope for him a speedy pardon. Can you not- 
will you not grant it? 

Let his deeds of daring, and the victories he helped win in the 
war with Mexico, rise in bold relief over thoughts which may 
be suggested by later and darker days, and let these latter days, 
I pray you, be covered with the vestment of pardon and of peace, 
even though some, perchance, would fain tear it aside, to stab 
afresji the unresisting nerveless ghost. 

As a woman, I meddle not with war or politics. As a woman, 
I would fain relieve the suffering of friend or foe. As a woman, 
I would cheer and solace the sorrowing. As a woman, I can but 
receive at your hands, a free and generous pardon for my broth- 
er, it will be to me, a moment of great happiness and joy. 

Ten years of my life have been spent in your native State, 
Tennessee. I was a teacher in the Female College at Rogersville 
seven years, where I became acquainted with your son-in-law, 
David Patterson whose sister was a pupil of my class. I once met 
your daughter, his wife, at an evening party given by Mrs. 
Simpson in Rogersville. I was in Knoxville, Tenn. when the war 
broke out, and left there for the North in 1864. I have been here 
in Statesville but a short time. 

I beg you will do me the favor to answer this letter in your own 
handwriting if possible, - I desire to have your autograph and 
if it declare my brother's pardon, it will be doubly prised and 
cherished. To your son-in-law I would tender my respects. 

Forgive whatever my seem obstructive and believe me 



Very respectfully & sincerely 
your friend 



Address Miss L.S. Ruggles 
Concord Female College 
Statesville 

N.C. 
Care of Rev. J.M.M. Caldwell 



From William W. Holden 

Ebbitt House, 

Washington, July 11, 1866. 
To the President of the United States. 

Sir: You were kind enough to intimate, in the conversation I 
had the honor to have with you this morning, that if I would 
reduce the substance of what I had said to writing, you would 
put your reply "in the same shape. 

I beg leave to repeat, that under your order I reorganized the 
government of North Carolina on a thoroughly loyal basis, with 
men in office who had been opposed to the rebellion, who were 



228 The North Carolina Historical Review 

devpted to the Union, and who were co-operating cheerfully and 
heartily with you in the work of restoration. At that time loyalty 
to the national Union was respectable, and treason and disloyalty 
were odious. I was relieved of office on the 28th December, 1865, 
and since that period, under the administration of my successor, 
a marked change has taken place. Loyal men have been turned 
out of office, and disloyal men put in, for no other reason than 
that the latter are the special friends and partizans of the present 
Governor. The original Union men like yourself, and those who 
were for peace on the basis of the restoration of the Union before 
the close of the rebellion, are almost entirely excluded from office 
by my successor, and are thereby deprived of the opportunity 
and the pleasure of aiding you, as they desire to do, in the work 
of restoration ; while unpardoned rebels are honored, and places 
of trust and confidence are filled by leading war men and rebels, 
who have not, in the opinion of our Union people, sincerely or 
duly repented of their great crime of seeking deliberately and 
from choice to destroy the national government. 

This has been done, Sir, under the lead and direction of the 
present Governor of the State. The Union men have appealed to 
him in vain for consideration and protection. They have even 
offered to forget and forgive his defection from the Union cause 
last October, and support him for re-election, provided he would 
cast off the influences by which he was elected, would appoint 
only true Union men to office, and would co-operate with you in 
good faith in carrying out the work of restoration. But he has 
rejected this offer, and is now engaged, as he has been from the 
first, in undoing the work of restoration in our State, in pro- 
scribing Union men, and thus obstructing the return of the State 
to the Union. 

Our Union people look to you for sympathy and succor. They 
are supporting you in good faith, and they are attached to your 
administration. They cannot forget your sufferings and sacrifices 
for the Union, at a time when it required extraordinary moral 
and physical courage to be a Union man, as you were in Tennes- 
see ; and this, joined to the fact that you are a native of our State, 
disposes our people to look to you with peculiar confidence and 
affection. 

Our Union people believe that loyalty will not be exterminated 
as it should, now your plan for restoring the States be placed on 
the high ground it deserves to occupy, until the means and in- 
strumentalities which you put in operation in 1865 shall have 
been restored. They feel that in no other way can the State be 
made to appear in a truly loyal garb, and thus enforce its claims 
on Congress and the country for admission into the Union, with- 
out further changes in the Constitution until all the States are 
again represented. 

Those public men who have control of affairs in our State, 
insist that you are opposed to the present Congressional test 
oath ; and that you are in favor of the immediate admission of all 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 229 

the members of Congress from the recently insurgent States. 
When we deny this, and insist that the oath, or some similar oath 
is necessary, and that the oath is a matter specially with the Con- 
gress, they declare it to be unconstitutional; that they do not 
respect it ; and that, if it is to be maintained, it will amount, as 
recently declared by my successor in his message to the Conven- 
tion, to the perpetual practical disfranchisement of the State. 
They thus defiantly set themselves up against one of the laws of 
the land, and take refuge under your shadow to protect and justi- 
fy themselves. 

The Unionists of our State, so far from desiring to proscribe 
their fellow-citizens, are ready to receive into their ranks all 
who sincerely repent that they deliberately sought to destroy the 
government, and who give unmistakable proof of their thorough 
submission to the national authority ; but they still think, as they 
did in 1865, that justice and sound policy require that such per- 
sons should take no active or conspicuous part in the work of 
restoration, but leave it where it was placed by you in the outset, 
to wit, in the hands of the loyal Union men. 

In conclusion, allow me to say that the cause of restoration is 
obstructed in our State by those in power ; the truly loyal people 
are depressed and mortified ; malcontents and rebels are extaltant 
and defiant; ill feeling is engendered; injustice is perpetrated 
through the Courts by means of disloyal prosecuting officers, 
and Juries, and some magistrates, though our Judges are loyal, 
yet not always able to withstand the pressure of public opinion ; 
treason and disloyalty are promoted and honored, while loyalty 
is evinced at the hazard of political, social, and pecuniary pro- 
scription. 

All we ask is, that the truly loyal of our people shall govern 
until the State is restored to the Union. This is the best, if not 
the only assurance we can have of Justice to both races, white and 
black, And in no other way can good feeling, and harmony, and 
security to life, liberty, and prosperity be secured, and the State 
be put upon the clear, open road to the completion of the great 
work of restoration, so auspiciously commenced bv you, Sir, in 
May, 1865. 

I have the honor to be, with very high respect, 

Your obt Servant, 
Late Prov. Gov. N.C. 



From William W. Holden 

Ebbit House [Washington,D.C.],July 11,1866. 
My dear Mr. President. 

I have written hurriedly what you will find enclosed. Please 
read it carefully, and answer accordingly. I will not presume to 



230 The North Carolina Historical Review 

say what your reply should be, but I trust you will make it a 
direct and pointed as you can. You can form no idea of the de- 
pression among your real friends in our state, or of the exultant, 
overbearing manner of our enemies and masters. 

If you can enable us to carry the State we can help you, and 
help the Union cause, now in so much peril. Our friends in the 
Convention postponed the elections until October so as to secure 
a chance of success. This was all they could do. If you will help 
us, we will make a united, determination, at successful fight. 

I should like much to leave for home to-morrow evening. I 
would be glad if you could have your reply ready by to-morrow 
twelve M. I would like to take the correspondence home, and have 
it appear first in the Standard, if you have no objection. 

Very truly yours. 

I have heard with concern of the conditions of Things in North- 
Carolina. 67 

Your administration as Provisional Governor has my entire 
approval. I so telegraphed you last November. I regret that you 
were defeated. It was, and is my wish that the same means and 
instrumentalities that commenced, should complete the work of 
restoration. The machinery of restoration has been changed and 
improved, but it will not work acceptably unless it is managed 
by the same sort of men whom I at first employed. 

I am laboring to restore the Union on the basis of the Constitu- 
tion. I am doing this, not for section merely, or for a season, but 
for the whole country and for all time. Those who profess to sus- 
tain me should do so practically. They cannot do this by prescrib- 
ing my friends, or by any policy which tends to make disloyalty 
respectable, and loyalty odious. Those who stood by the Union 
ought to be proud of it, and should be respected for it. The flag 
of the country should command the respect and homage of all. 

While I would not persecute any citizens of the country, but 
will take by the hand and greet cordially all who submit in good 
faith to the authority of the government, and who show by their 
acts that they are loyal and well disposed, yet my sympathies are 
warmly with such Union men as sustained you at the polls ; and 
I deem it highly important that such, and only such should take 
an active and leading part in the work of restoration. If there be 
but five thousand loyal men in a State, to them should be entrust- 
ed the control of affairs, at least until the State is restored. There 
are more than five thousand persons in your State. 

It is for Congress to say who shall be admitted to seats. The 
States, in my judgment, are entitled to be represented. But Con- 
gress has prescribed a rule, and it is the duty of those seeking 
admission to comply with it. Unpardoned persons, and persons 
who cannot take the prescribed oath, cannot expect to be ad- 
mitted. Thjs may seem hard to some, but it cannot be objection- 

67 This was enclosed in Holden's letter to President Johnson, July 11, 1866. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 231 

able to those whose paramount wish is to see the Union restored. 

I would not advise the States to make any more concession. 
They are entitled to representation ; but in order to secure it, and 
to retain my plan of restoration, they should send men who can 
successfully stand any existing Constitutional or legal test. 

I ardently trust that the people of my beloved native State will 
so act as to secure their return to the Union at the earliest pos- 
sible period ; and that the time is not distant when we shall have 
again a united, contented, prosperous, and happy country. 



From Benjamin S. Hedrick 

Washington, D.C. 
July , 25, 1866. 
To the President: 

The inclosed is a copy of a petition from citizens of Stokes and 
Forsyth Cos. N.C. sent to me with a request that it be laid before 
you. Some of the signers I know, and many I do not know. But I 
have every reason to believe that the signers are honest and true 
men, and if any fault attaches to them it is more to be charged to 
the violence of the times than anything else. 

Respectfully 

Your obt Ser* 



From Citizens of Stokes and Forsyth Counties 

"Memorial, 
To the President , and Congress, of the U.S. We the under- 
signed, loyal citizens, of Stokes, and Forsyth Counties, of N.C, 
and Patrick County Va ; do sincerely pray, that some protection, 
or leniency be shown us, from the U.S. Government, We who 
have been, inhumanly persecuted, for three or four years, of the 
most infamous, and cruel rebellion, We say cruel, because the 
most Tyrannical, acts of atrocity, were perpetrated, on every 
advocate of loyalty: consequently, we or part of us, were com- 
pelled, to seek refuge, in holes, and dens in the woods, leaving 
our wives, and,, little ones , to the mercy of the most fiendish, 
traitors. Our homes have been visited, every few days, and locks 
broken, and plundered, of the contents. In many instances, our 
houses have been burnt, our provision taken, our horses, cattle, 
hogs, and in a word, every thing, on which to subsist, have been 
wrested from our hands, as punishment, of our disobedience to 
the Rebel Government. Our wives have, been insulted, and mal- 
treated, robbed of even their wearing apparel ; their finger-rings, 
torn from their fingers, and bestowed upon the wives, and daugh- 



232 The North Carolina Historical Review 

ters, of rebel traitors. Some of our wives, have been torn from 
their suckling -babes, and thrown into camp, guarded by rebel 
ruffians, from two, to three weeks duration, and subjected to the 
most, insulting, and cruel tortueres : to wit, their hands have been 
put under , fence-rails, and hung up,by their thumbs, in order , 
to extort from them the hiding places, of their husbands, and 
sons. When ourselves, and sons were taken by them, we were 
tied with ropes, our shoes taken off, robbed of our money and 
clothing,compelled to walk, from 25 to 60 miles, barefooted 
through the snow, and cold thence carried, to Castle-Thunder, 
and punished beyond the power of a[ccoun]t to describe. They 
tried to perish us out, by taking our provision : some of us living 
in caves, and some over the lines, members of the U.S. army. A 
few of us obliged to keep from starving, were compelled to treat 
them likewise, to keep soul and body together. In this critical 
condition, did Gen Stoneman's Raiders, find us, and some of them 
remained behind, and proffered to us that protection, collected 
up, some of these cruelly treated men, from their hiding places, 
went around, and made a few of the rebel traitors, give up a 
portion of their property, they had taken. It was then, that they 
appeared seemingly, penitent, and asked for letters of protection, 
which were granted. During the rebellion, they were the most in- 
fluential, part of the community now they are still in the as- 
cendency. Our civil tribunals, seem to be governed, and ruled by 
them, and our destinies, as it were, are in the palms of their 
hands. In every instance where any property was taken, we have 
been indicted, and our property taken to pay the cost, while our 
cases are thrown out of court, with the plea, that they were 
authorized by the Rebel Government while we have no authority 
under which to act. We who have fled our homes, crossed the 
linesjoined the U.S. army, and lend every assistance in the pres- 
ervation, and extinuation, of our glorious old Union, are now 
oppressed, by these hated traitors. We assert that the great mass 
of the Secesh rebels, in this country are not loyal. It is an every 
day occurrence, that they speak hard things, of the U.S. Govern- 
ment, and say, that they would rather be under the protection of 
England, and France, than the U.S. And are we still to be per- 
secuted. No ; we appeal to the President, and Congress for redress 
of our grievances. With the faith of God, we look to thee, with 
a certainty of success. 

W. B. Stipe W A Shafer M Smith 

E. L. Amos E H Amus Levi Mathews 

S W Amos J A Amos E Mathews 

G W Shafer J. Smith E Benbo M. D 

Geo Wilkins F Roberns S. M. Hansen 

W J Wilkins R Robbens Henry Scott 

Tho Wilkins Jef Smith J North 

Floyd Wilkins John Haider F. W. Hall 

John Okley Jas. T. Haider Martin Armfield 

R. D. Griffith H Fry J. W. Williams 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 



233 



Isaac Huchens 
H Huchens 
J.H. Norman 
G. Z. Powders 
Mark Taylor 
N H Potts 
E A Brown 
E. B Prone 
John Casper 
R.G. Amos 
J S Amos 
W Caswell 
E L Beasley 
B J Martin 
W H Spencer 
Jas. M Spencer 
R F Amos 
T D Watkins 
Sam 1 Carson 
James Fane 
James Parkerston 
Jesse A Corne 
J B Hodgey 
S J Coon 
J M Brown 
J J Brown 
Winston Eades 
J J Cunningham 
J A Coon 
Joseph Coon 
N V Shelton 
Landeau Nelson 
James E Smith 
Wm Nelson 
Leroy Nelson 
Marston Mabe 
T Nelson 
Wm Mabe 
Lewis Mabe, Sr 
Geo W Manning 
N R Shelton 
Leo Smith 
John Smith 
John Hix 
Noah Smitt 
R W Flinch 
Jonathan Flinch 
Wm Fagg 
W L Albery 
Lewis Mabe , 



Braxton Langford 

B F Simmons 

E P Simmons 

N S Simmons 

Joel A Tucker 

J F Simmons 

C P Simmons 

G J Simmons 

Flint Lawson 

W W Lawson 

Wiat Lawson 

Woody Langford 

Joseph Langford 

F A Smith 

Christian Mauring 

J A Martin 

Peter Owens 

J L Hall 

J H Starlin 

D.S.Hobson U.S.Sold 

Zebe Hall 

N W Glenn 

John Spear 

J. V. Mathews 

J. S. Kittle 

F F Adams U S Sold 

W J Colhard 

A Z Joyner 

Joseph Patterson 

John Norme 

J H Speed 

T J Herming 

J A Poindexter 

J. T. S Mathews 

Jesse Headir 

D. T. Allgood 

J W Heiston 

D J Adams 

John Shore 

Giles Hutchens 

W A Bolin 

Alx. Hutchens 

B C Myers 

Ben McKey 

J M Reece 

W R Vertel 

J F Reave 

Asia Reaves 

John Cooley 



J P Reavis 
J Vestal 

Leonard Shegart 
Isaac M Calvord 
M F Farington 
Ben Shore 
D Zalkel 
B N Willard 
R M Willard 
David Reavis 
James Reavis 
F H Willard 
L D Willard 
El Willard 
Samuel Adams 
A. G. Adams 
H Cordal 
James Sizemore 
Harder Morgan 
Joseph Reavis 
David Hutcheson 
F H Hobson 
A G Bruce 
S H Harding 
Eugene Carter 
Geo. Cordel 
James Brown 
M F Cooper 
John Patterson 
Samuel Scott 
John Law 
W F Kirk 
J W Cornnelias 
W H Spilman 
Wm Doalan 
J R Hutchens 
J. V. Bender 
A A Starlin 
T. F. Mathews 
A. Spease 
E Cox 
Pla. Cordel 
Thos Davis 
Ben. 1 Creed 
Joel Lakey 
Chas. Price 
Ellis Norman 
A. T. Davis 
Wm D. Spencer 
F Evins 



234 



The North Carolina Historical Review 



W.A. Poindexter 

John Worning 

Geo. Pitts 

A. A. Wining 

C H Adams U S Col 

W. R. Allgood 

A. H. Vestel 

J W Allgood 

Wm W Reives 

Dan Reaves 

Wm Steelman 

A H Reavis 

John H Reaves 

Henry P Allgood 

Isaac Hutchens 

Geo. Reavis 

John Gaugh 

James Shars 

A Crakam 

B Sismore 

J . C. Wisbon 

J A Wisbon 

Geo Adams 

A. J. Bovender 

Jesse Dobins 

Jo. B. Steelman U. S. 

Sol 
T M Vestal 
A J Wisbon 
J D Sugurts 
W D Vestal 
Eli Stimson 
G W Tucker 
B Tucker 
G B Simmons 
W L Simmons 
M E Simmons 
M J Simmons 
Sam Simmons 
D J Simmons 
J Fagg 
J H Fagg 
C W Mauring 
W A Smith 
Peter Smith 
W S Hill 
H. H. Fagg 
Wiat Lankford 
La Smith 
J L Johnson 
John R Jewel J. P. 



S M. Shelton 
W A. Shephard 
James Sheperd 
Sanford Barns 
Charles R Grif f ine 
Nelson Shelton 
John Arnol 
G H Shelton 
W. Y. Shelton 
Jam. Hall 
C. L. Shepherd 
Ben Pike 
James Hickes 
Buryille Hickes 
John Woods 
Floyd Woods 
Wm. Woods 
Wm. H. Hall 
B. J. New 
John Aron 
Levi Smith 
Henry Hall 
Joseph Hall 
James Sands 
James Flinch 
James Rierson 
T. R. Lawson 
J Rierson 
James Shelton 
Ed Mabe 
Alx. Mabe 
Joshua Freman 
Gidian George 
Wm Freman 
J W Eaton 
W C Johnston 
J P Bennett 
G Bennett 
J F Lakery 
M C Bruce 
R M Logan 
John W Carson 
F W Lakev 
E C Bruce 
Z J Adams 
Edward Sink 
W. Rowland 
Wm. B. Shields 
R. A. Stewart 
A. C. Patterson 
Isaac Prinn 



A. Poindexter 
Wm. Phillips 

Eli Wooten U S Sold 

W. A. Neding 

J. M. Shelton 

A J Holt 

W. R. Aron 

WMNew 

J. T. Martin 

J. W. New 

B. A Overby 
J. Holt 

Geo. W. Gunter 
Wm A Martin 
T. F. Overby 
Oliver Priatt 
Wm. Joyce 
Joseph Atkinson 
J W Collins 
Peter Slate 
T. M. Slate 
A J Slate 
T E Slate 
T H Slate 
John Vamten 
J. T. Flint 
J. K Carter 
J Smithers 
Henry Warner 
Jesse Wooten U.S. 

Sold 
J L Rask 
H. C. Felts 
Elbert Wells 
S N Godfrey 
J W Parden 
A C. Johnston 
Enoch Coffin 
Dan [i] el Gerlt 
B R Berber 
A. D. Gentry 
C S Nicks 
James M York 
W. W. Patterson 
J Stevens 
Anderson Davis 
Henry Steelman 
J Shores 
A Shores 
D Shores 
W Lvnch 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 



235 



W. A. Andrews 
A Lang 
W P Lang 
J A Lang 
A Johnson 
R Johnson 
E Lenge 
Wm.Smith 
W Weaveal 
W T Surgut 
T Stoppard 
W H Slate 
Giles F Shelton 
L.R. Ringman 
Wm T Jessup 
John Jessup 
John Slate 
G. W. Slate 
Caleb Jessup 
Jas. A Jessup 
Wm. C. Martin 
Samuel D. Martin 



R. B. Overby 
J W Forrest 
H H Brow 
John Gann 
Samuel Gann 
Wm Shaffer 
W Gann 
John Wilkerson 
James Wilkerson 
James Humes 
J W Humes 
F G Gray 
S N Stafford 
S T Hines 
Geo Hines 
J Matsinger 
H. Bodenhamer 
J Bodenhamer 
W Bodenhamer 
A. Phillips 
J.F.L. Tusk 
S Livengood 



J W Browning 
S. V. 0. Perry 
El Perry 
E Elles 
J Thornbury 
S Cruse 
S. C. Bennett 
W. Y. Bennett 
Ross Johnson 
J. J. Robberns 
G W Mills 
W H Redwell 
S C Welch 
T.E. North 
W Cruse 
T M Varst 
T Wilson 
John Rodgers 
E. L. T. Brown 
H Gray 



This letter was enclosed by Governor Worth in his letter of April 

17, 1866. 

(Copy) 

Raleigh, April 14th 1866. 
To His Excellency 
Jonathan Worth, 
Governor of North Carolina :- 
Governor : 

On the tenth of April 1866, John H. Gee, a citizen of the State 
of Florida, filed a petition before me, as one of the Judges of the 
Superior Court of North Carolina, alleging that he was imprison- 
ed and held in close confinement in the city of Raleigh by Brevet 
Major General Thomas H. Ruger, U.S.A., commanding the De- 
partment of North Carolina, and that by his order a Military 
Commission had been convened and organized in said city for 
the trial of said petitioner, under certain charges and specifica- 
tions, which were full set forth and annexed, consisting in part 
of offences against the laws of nations in the cruel treatment of 
prisoners of war, taken and held as such from the armies of the 
United States of America by the late rebel government or mili- 
tary authorities thereof at Salisbury, North Carolina, and in 
part of surrender in violation of the laws of war ; all of which 
offences are alleged to have been committed during the existence 
of the late rebellion, to wit, in the months of October, November 



236 The North Carolina Historical Review 

and December, 1864; and setting forth the Proclamation of his 
Excellency, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, 
issued on the 2d day of April, 1866, and claiming that, by virtue 
of said Proclamation, he was entitled to be discharged from the 
military authorities of the United States government, and pray- 
ing that the writ of Habeas Corpus be issued, &c, So that the 
cause of his capture and detention might be inquired into, &c. 

Believing that the President, by his Proclamation, intended 
to restore to the people of North Carolina the privileges of the 
writ of Habeas Corpus, and that there was no warrant in the 
constitution of the United States for the existence of military 
tribunals in time of peace for the "land or naval service," I 
issued the writ prayed for on the 11th instant, making it return- 
able on the 14th instant,at which time, Brevet Major General 
Ruger made return that the said John H. Gee was detained by 
him "as a prisoner under authority of the President of the United 
States." 

The body of the petitioner not being produced, his counsel 
moved for an attachment to issue against Brevet Major General 
Ruger, on account of his non-compliance with the mandate of the 
writ. 

After consideration, and for the purpose, if possible, of avoid- 
ing a conflict with the military authorities of the United States 
Government, the Court announced its determination as follows: 

"According to the construction which the Court is disposed 
to give to the recent Proclamation of the President of the United 
States, dated April 2d, 1866, the Court has inferred that it was 
the purpose of the President to restore to the people of North 
Carolina all the benefits of civil law in times of peace- one con- 
sequence of which is "that no person could be subject to trial by 
martial law, unless he was in the land or naval service of the 
United States." ' 

It is taken for granted that the petitioner has never been in either 
service. 

The court has always been inclined to believe that in times 
of peace the Civil law of North Carolina, consistent with the civil 
law of the United States and not in conflict therewith, was su- 
preme, and martial or military law was subordinate thereto. 

It may be however that the Court has misconstrued the intent 
of the President's Proclamation, that it was not his purpose to 
suppress the exercise of Martial law as to military commissions 
in actual session for trial of offenders, at the time the Proclama- 
tion was promulgated. 

The Court being desirous of avoiding all conflict between the 
Civil authorities of the State and the Military authorities of the 
United States Government, deems it advisable to take further 
time for consideration, until it may have an opportunity of as- 
certaining the precise meaning of the Proclamation in this re- 
spect. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 237 

The motion will, therefore, be continued until 10 O'clock A. M. 
of the 28th of April." 

As it is my desire, Governor, - before making a final decision- 
to have all possible information in regard to the true intent of 
the President's Proclamation, I have transmitted to you a state- 
ment of the case, for the purpose of requesting that you will 
furnish me with all the information which you may have received 
in relation thereto. 

Yours Very Respectfully, 
Dan. 1 G; Fowle, Jr. S.C. 



[To Be Continued} 



NORTH CAROLINA BIBLOGRAPHY, 1949-1950 1 

By Mary Lindsay Thornton 

Bibliography mid Libraries 

FOLK, EDGAR ESTES, editor. A catalogue of the library of 
Charles Lee Smith. Wake Forest, N. C, Wake Forest Press, 
1950. xxx, 654 p. il. 

SANDBURG, CARL. Lincoln collector: the story of Oliver R. 
Barrett's great private collection. New York, Harcourt, Brace, 
1950. 360 p. il. $7.50, limited edition published 1949, $15.00. 

SOUTHEASTERN STATES COOPERATIVE LIBRARY SUR- 
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by Louis R. Wilson and Marion A. Milczewski, with a foreword 
by Helen M. Harris. Chapel Hill, Published for the Southeast- 
ern Library Association by the University of North Carolina 
Press, 1949. xxiv, 301 p. diagrs. $2.50. 

WILSON, LOUIS ROUND. A survey of the libraries of the 
Alabama Polytechnic Institute by Louis R. Wilson and Robert 
W. Orr. Auburn, Ala., Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 1949. 
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Religion and Philosophy 

BLACK, ERNEST WATSON. Living messages from the Canaan 

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Black, Gastonia, N.C. 
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1949. Chapel Hill, N.C, the Church, [1950] 39 p. il. $1.00 pa. 
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GOLDEN, HARRY LEWIS. Jews in American history, their 

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Golden and Martin Rywell. [Charlotte, N. C, H. L. Martin Co., 

1950] xv, 498 p. $10. 
PETRY, RAY C. Preaching in the great tradition; neglected 

chapters in the history of preaching. Philadelphia, Westmin- 
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POTEAT, EDWIN McNEILL. Parables of crisis. New York, 

Harper [1950] 255 p. $2.75. 
SHUTE, JOHN RAYMOND. The golden dawn. Monroe, N. C„ 

Nocalore Press, 1950. 78 p. $1.50. 
TOMLINSON, AMBROSE JESSUP. Diary of A. J. Tomlinson ; 

editorial notes by his son, Homer A. Tomlinson. New York, 

1 Books dealing with North Carolina or by North Carolinians published during the year 
ending August 31, 1950. 

[238 ] 



North Carolina Bibliography 239 

Church of God, World Headquarters, 1949. v. 1, 1901-1923 tells 
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Economics and Sociology 

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BROUGHTON, JOSEPH MELVILLE. Public addresses, letters 
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CHAFFIN, NORA CAMPBELL. Trinity College, 1839-1892: 
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COHEN, SANFORD. State labor legislation, 1937-1947; a study 
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GUERRANT, EDWARD O. Roosevelt's good neighbor policy. 
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HALLOWELL, JOHN H. Main currents in modern political 
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HERRING, HARRIET LAURA. Passing of the mill village; 
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HILL, REUBEN. Families under stress; adjustment to the crises 
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KEY, VALDIMER ORLANDO. Southern politics in state and 
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KNIGHT, EDGAR WALLACE, editor. A documentary history 
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OSBORNE ASSOCIATION. Osborne Association survey report 
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240 The North Carolina Historical Review 

State Highway and Public Works Commission, Prison Depart- 
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SHUTE, JOHN RAYMOND. Twilight in the temple. Monroe, 
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STEPHENSON, GILBERT THOMAS. Estates and trusts. New 
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WALLACH, KATE. Cumulative index-digest North Carolina 
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Philology 

KURATH, HANS. A word geography of the eastern United 
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Science 

BRIMLEY, HERBERT HUTCHINSON. A North Carolina natu- 
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RAPER, KENNETH BRYAN. A manual of the penicillia by 
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TAYLOR, WALTER P. Land wildlife resources of the South. 
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Applied Science and Useful Arts 

CALHOON, RICHARD PERCIVAL. Problems in personnel ad- 
ministration. New York, Harper [1949] xii, 540 p. $4.00. 

EMMERSON, JOHN CLOYD. Steam navigation in Virginia and 
northeastern North Carolina waters . . . compiled from the files 
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FRANKLIN COUNTY, N. C. HOME DEMONSTRATION 
CLUBS. Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs favorite 
recipes. [Louisburg, 1950] 181 p. Apply the County Agent. 

FULMER, JOHN LEONARD. Agricultural progress in the Cot- 
ton Belt since 1920. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina 
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HERRING, HARRIET LAURA. Southern resources for in- 
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KEPLER, HAZEL CLOUGHLEY. Food for little people, by 



North Carolina Bibliography 241 

Hazel Kepler and Elizabeth Hesser. Sketches by Hazel Kepler. 
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WOODSIDE, MOYA. Sterilization in North Carolina; a soci- 
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Fine Arts 

HARWELL, RICHARD BARKSDALE. Confederate music. 

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Poetry 

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lotte, N. C, Dowd Press, 1950] 17 p. Apply American Trust 
Company, Charlotte, N. C. 

HAMPTON, LURA JIMISON. Nightfall. Winston-Salem, N. C. 
Clay Printing Company, 1950. 87 p. $2.00. 

HENDERSON, BARBARA. Of wars and rumors of war. [Char- 
lotte, N. C, Conrad Advertising Company. 1950] [21] p. $2.00 
pa. 



i 



242 The North Carolina Historical Review 

HEWITT, ANDREW. Traveller to April. Charlotte, N. C, Blue 

Ridge Press, [1949] [51] p. $1.55. 
HUTCHINS, W. L. Withered weeds. Winston-Salem, N. C, Clay 

Printing Company, 1950. 81 p. il. $2.00. 
MEADOWS, LEON RENFROE. Reveries. New York, Exposition 

Press [1949] 125 p. $2.75. 
ROYSTER, NAT. L. Once to every heart. New York, Exposition 

Press, [1947] 95 p. $2.00. 
STEM, THAD. Picture poem. Branson, Mo., New Athenaeum 

Press, 1950. 64 p. Apply Author, Oxford, N. C. 
WADDELL, MAUDE. Southern poems. No place, privately 

printed, [1950?] 14 p. il. 

Fiction 2 

BELL, THELMA HARRINGTON. Pawnee; with drawings by 

Corydon Bell. New York, Viking Press, 1950. 60 p. il. $2.00. 

Juvenile. 
BROWN, JOE DAVID. The freeholder. New York, Morrow, 

1949. 203 p. $3.00. 
CHAPMAN, MARISTAN. pseud, Rogue's March. Philadelphia, 

J. B. Lippincott Co., [1949] 384 p. il. $3.00. 
CREDLE, ELLIS. The adventures of Tittletom. New York, 

Oxford University Press, 1949. 79 p. il. $1.75. Juvenile. 
CREDLE, ELLIS. Here comes the showboat! Written and illus- 
trated by Ellis Credle. New York, Nelson [1949] 95 p. il. 

music. $2.50. 
GOULD, MAGGY. The dowry, a novel. New York, W. Morrow, 

1949. 244 p. $2.75. 
GREEN, PAUL. Dog on the sun, a volume of stories. Chapel Hill, 

University of North Carolina Press [1949] ix. 178 p. $3.00. 
HEAGNEY, ANNE. The magic pen. Milwaukee, Bruce [1949] 

v, 168 p. $2.50. 
POLSKY, THOMAS, The cudgel. New York, Dutton, 1950. 223 

p. $2.50. 
RUARK, ROBERT CHESTER. One for the road, illustrated by 

R. Taylor. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday. 1949. 253 p. il. $2.50. 
SLAUGHTER, FRANK GILL. Divine mistress. Garden City, 

N. Y., Doubleday, 1949. 340 p. $3.00. 
SLAUGHTER, FRANK GILL. The stubborn heart. Garden City, 

N. Y., Doubleday, 1950. 307 p. $3.00. 
STEELE, MAX. Debby. 3 New York, Harper, [1950] 304 p. $3.00. 
STREET, JAMES HOWELL. Mingo Dabney. New York, Dial 

Press, 1950. 383 p. $3.00. 
TAYLOR, PETER. A woman of means. New York, Harcourt, 

Brace [1950] 160 p. il. $2.75. 
WELLMAN, MANLY WADE. The raiders of Beaver Lake. New 

York, Nelson [1950] 160 p. $2.00. Juvenile. 

* With a North Carolina Betting or by a North Carolinian. 
3 Winner of Mayflower award, 1950. 



North Carolina Bibliography 243 

WOLFE, THOMAS. ... the years of wandering in many lands 
and cities. New York, C. S. Boesen [1949] [10] p. 6 mounted 
facsims. Edition limited to 600 copies. $10.00. 

Literature Other Than Poetry, Drama, or Fiction 

ADAMS, GEORGE C. S. Words and descriptive terms for 'wom- 
an' and 'girl' in French and Provencal and border dialects. 
Chapel Hill, Department of Romance Languages, University 
of North Carolina, 1949. 99 p. (Studies in Romance languages 
and literatures, no. 11) $1.50 pa. 

BOWIE, THEDORE ROBERT. The painter in French fiction, a 
critical essay. [Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, 
1950] 60 p. (Studies in Romance languages and literatures, no. 
15) $1.50 pa. 

HOLMES, URBAN TIGNER, editor. Romance studies presented 
to William Morton Dey on the occasion of his seventieth birth- 
day by his colleagues and former students; edited by Urban 
T. Holmes, Jr., Alfred G. Engstrom and Sturgis E. Leavitt. 
Chapel Hill [University of North Carolina] 1950. 196 p. port. 
(Studies in the Romance Languages and literatures, no. 12.) 
$1.50 pa. 

MEEKINS, VICTOR, The old sea captain and the drummer; 
salty dialogue from the land of wind and water as written 
years ago for The coastline times. Manteo [The Times Printing 
Company, c. 1950] 120 p. il. Apply. 

[PASCHAL, MRS. FRANCIS] A literary map of North Caro- 
lina. Designed by Primrose [pseud] Prepared by the Litera- 
ture Committee, North Carolina English Teachers Association, 
Mary Wyche Mintz, chairman. Raleigh, Edwards and Brough- 
ton Company, c. 1950. col. map 52 x 84 cm. with illus. and list 
of authors. $1.50. 

POTEAT, HUBERT M., translator of Cicero. Brutus; On the 
nature of the Gods ; On divination ; On duties ; with an intro- 
duction by Richard McKeon. Chicago, University of Chicago 
Press, 1950. v, 660 p. $6.00. 

REICHERT, HERBERT WILLIAM. Basic concepts in the phi- 
losophy of Gottfried Keller. Chapel Hill, 1949. 164 p. (North 
Carolina. University. Studies in the Germanic languages and 
literatures, no. 1) $3.20 pa. 

SHINE, HILL, editor. Booker memorial studies ; eight essays on 
Victorian literature in memory of John Manning Booker, 1881- 

1948. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press [1950] 
xiv, 183 p. port. $4.00. 

SHINE, HILL. The Quarterly review under Gifford ; identifica- 
tion of contributors, 1809-1824, by Hill Shine and Helen Chad- 
wick Shine. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 

1949. xx, 108 p. $3.00. 



244 The North Carolina Historical Review 

History and Tmvel 

ACOMB, FRANCES. Anglophobia in France, 1763-1789; an 
essay in the history of constitutionalism and nationalism. Dur- 
ham, N. C, Duke University Press, 1950. xii, 167 p. 

COLLINS' tourist handbook of North Carolina. Winston-Salem, 
N. C, The Collins Company, 1950. 90 p. $.25 pa. 

CORBITT, DAVID LEROY. The formation of the North Caro- 
lina counties, 1663-1943. Raleigh, State Department of Ar- 
chives and History, 1950. xix, 323 p. maps. Apply. Mailing fee 
of $.50. 

COULTER, ELLIS MERTON. The Confederate States of Ameri- 
ca, 1861-1865. [Baton Rouge] Louisiana State University 
Press, 1950. x, 644 p. il. (A History of the South, v. 7) $7.00. 

COULTER, ELLIS MERTON, editor. A list of the early settlers 
of Georgia edited by E. Merton Coulter and Albert B. Saye. 
Athens, The University of Georgia Press, [c. 1949] xiv, 103 p. 
$4.00. 

CRUM, MASON. The story of Lake Junaluska. Greensboro, N. C, 
The Piedmont Press, 1950. 117 p. il. Order from Lake Juna- 
luska Assembly. $2.00. 

EATON, CLEMENT. A history of the Old South. New York, 
Macmillan, 1949. ix, 636 p. il. $4.50. 

JOHNSON, GERALD WHITE. Incredible tale; the odyssey of 
the average American in the last half century. New York, 
Harper [1950] viii, 301 p. $3.50. 

NORTH CAROLINA almanac and state industrial guide, 1950- 
1951, [edited by] Mrs. J. C. B. Ehringhaus, Mrs. Carl Goerch. 
Raleigh, Almanac Publishing Company, c. 1950. 652 p. il. 
$1.50 pa. 

NORTH CAROLINA. UNIVERSITY. Essays in southern history 
presented to Joseph Gregoire de Roulhac Hamilton, Ph.D., 
LL.D., by his former students at the University of North Caro- 
lina, edited by Fletcher Green. Chapel Hill, University of North 
Carolina Press, 1949. vii, 156 p. (The James Sprunt studies in 
history and political science, v. 31) $2.50, $1.50 pa. 

PARRIS, JOHN. The Cherokee story. Asheville, N. C, Stephens 
Press, 1950. 122 p. il. $1.00 pa. 

Autobiography and Biography 

ADAMS, AGATHA (BOYD) Thomas Wolfe, Carolina student; 
a brief biography. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina 
Library, 1950. 91 [1] p. (Library extension publication, v. 
15, no. 2) $1.25, $.50 pa. 

BARRINGER, PAUL BRANDON. The natural bent; the mem- 
oirs of Dr. Paul B. Barringer. Chapel Hill, University of North 
Carolina Press [1949] viii, 280 p. $3.50. 

BLYTHE, LEGETTE. William Henry Belk, merchant of the 
South. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press [1950] 
xiv, 225 p. il. $2.75. 



North Carolina Bibliography 245 

BRODIN, PIERRE. Thomas Wolf e ; translation by Imogene Rid- 
dick; preface by Richard Walser. Asheville, N. C, Stephens 
Press, [c. 1949] 41 p. port. $1.50. 

BRYAN, FERREBEE CATHERINE. At the gates; life story 
of Matthew Tyson and Eliza Moring Yates of China. Nashville, 
Tennessee, Broadman Press, 1950. xii, 374 p. il. $3.75. 

BUMGARDNER, EDWARD. Life of Edmund Ross, the man 
whose vote saved a president. Kansas City, Mo., Fielding- 
Turner Press, 1950. $2.50. The president was Andrew Johnson. 

CLARK, WALTER. The papers of Walter Clark, edited by Au- 
brey Lee Brooks and Hugh Talmage Lefler. Chapel Hill, Uni- 
versity of North Carolina Press, 1950. v. 2. 1902-1924. $6.00. 

DAVIDSON, CHALMERS GASTON. Friend of the people ; the 
life of Dr. Peter Fayssoux of Charleston, South Carolina. 
Columbia, Medical Association of South Carolina, 1950. vii, 
151 p. $2.62. Order from R. M. Fechter, 1420 Lady St., Colum- 
bia, S. C. 

HARDRE, JACQUES, editor. Letters of Louvois, edited with 
introduction and notes by Jacques Hardre. Chapel Hill, [Uni- 
versity of North Carolina] 1949. 518, [1] p. (Studies in Ro- 
mance languages and literatures, no. 10) $6.00, pa. 

HOLMES, EDISON PARKER. The disadvantages of being a 
preacher's son. Illustrations and book cover by Carl Spencer. 
Winston-Salem, N. C, Printed by Clay Printing Company, 
1950. 167 p. il. $2.75. 

LONG, EUGENE HUDSON. O. Henry, the man and his work. 
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1949. xi, 158 
p. port. $2.75. 

LONG, MARY ALVES. High time to tell it. Durham, N. C, Duke 
University Press, 1950. xi, 314 p. il. $3.50. 

MAXWELL, RAYMOND C, Life and works of Allen Jay Max- 
well, 1873-1946. [Raleigh, N. C, privately printed] 1949. 213 p. 
ports. 

NOBLIN, STUART. Leonidas La Fayette Polk, agrarian cru- 
sader. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1949. 
ix, 325 p. il. $5.00. 

PERKINS, MAXWELL E. Editor to author, the letters of Max^ 
well E. Perkins, selected and edited with commentary and an 
introduction by John Hall Wheelock. New York, Charles Scrib- 
ners Sons, 1950. xiii, 315 p. port. $3.75. For Thomas Wolfe 

PRINCE, WILLIAM MEADE. The southern part of heaven, 
with illustrations by the author. New York, Rinehart [1950] 
314 p. il. $3.50. 

ROGERS, LOU. Tar Heel women. Raleigh, N. C, Warren Pub- 
lishing Company, [1949] xiv, 284 p. ports. $3.50. 

SHUTE, JOHN RAYMOND, His Honor, the heretic. Monroe, 
N. C, Nocalore Press, 1950.. 76 p. $1.50. 

WELLMAN, MANLY WADE. Giant in Gray; a biography of 



246 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Wade Hampton of South Carolina. New York, C. Scribners 
Sons, 1949. xv, 387 p. ports. $5.00. 

New Editions and Reprints 

ALLEN, MARY MOORE. North Carolina sketches and places. 
Goldsboro. N. C, Author, 1949. $.50 pa. 

BOYD, WILLIAM KENNETH. The story of Durham, city of the 
new South. Durham, N. C, Duke University Press, 1949. 345 
p. il. $3.00. 

BRIGGS, THOMAS HENRY. Secondary education. New York, 
MacMillan, 1950. 477 p. il. $4.00. 

COKER, ROBERT ERVIN. This great and wide sea. Chapel 
Hill, University of North Carolina Press, [1949] xvii, 325 p. il. 
$5.00. 

DAVIS, EUGENE C, editor. 8 popular plays for amateurs in 
prompt book style; a practical production anthology. New 
York, Greenberg, [1948] x, 258 p. il. Includes Paul Green's 
The last of the Lowries. 

DOUGLAS, MARY TERESA (PEACOCK) The teacher-libra- 
rian's handbook. 2d ed. Chicago, American Library Association, 
1949. 166 p. il. $2.75. 

HEDDEN, WORTH TUTTLE. The other room. New York, Ban- 
tam Books, 1950. $.25 pa. 

HELPER, HINTON ROWAN. Dreadful California. . . . Indian- 
apolis, Bobbs-Merrill [1948] 162 p. il. Published in 1855 under 
title: The land of gold. $2.50. 

HENRY, O., pseud, of WILLIAM SYDNEY PORTER. The gift 
of the Magi and An unfinished Christmas story. Garden City, 
N. Y., Country Life Press Corporation, 1949, 21 p. 

KENAN, WILLIAM RAND. History of Randleigh Farm, Sixth 
edition. Lockport, N. Y., Author, c. 1950. 377 p. il. Apply. 

KENAN, WILLIAM RAND. Incidents by the way; more recol- 
lections. Second edition. [Lockport, N. Y., Author, 1949.] 105 
p. il. Apply. 

McREE, GRIFFITH JOHN. Life and correspondence of James 
Iredell, one of the associate justices of the Supreme Court of 
the United States . . . New York, Peter Smith, 1949. Micro- 
Offset. 2v. in one. Limited edition, 200 copies. $10.00. 

NORTH CAROLINA (COLONY) GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 
HOUSE OF BURGESSES. The journal of the House of Bur- 
gesses of the Province of North-Carolina, 1749. Reproduced 
in facsimile in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the es- 
tablishment of the printing press in North Carolina ; with an 
introduction by William S. Powell. Raleigh, State Department 
of Archives and History, 1949. xvii p. facsim.: 14 p. Apply 
State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, N. C. 

SEPARK, JOSEPH HENRY. Gastonia and Gaston County, 
North Carolina, 1846-1949. Gastonia, [1950?] 237 p. 






North Carolina Bibliography 247 

SMITH, BETTY. Tomorrow will be better. Garden City, N. Y., 

Sun Dial Press, c. 1948. $1.00. 
WOLFE, THOMAS. Look homeward, angel : II. The adventures 

of young Gant, with an introduction by Edward C. Aswell. 

[New York] New American Library [1948] 192 p. $.25 pa. 

This edition contains most of Part II of Look homeward, angel. 



BOOK REVIEWS 

Trinity College, 1839-1892: The Beginnings of Duke University. By Nora 
Campbell Chaff in. (Durham: Duke University Press. 1950. Pp. xiv, 684. 
$5.00.) 

This volume relates the history of what was later to become 
Duke University, from its ante-bellum origin in Randolph Coun- 
ty to its removal to Durham near the end of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. The arrangement is chronological, following the progress of 
the institution through Brown's Schoolhouse, an elementary sub- 
scription school (. . . ?-1839) ; Union Institute, a private academy 
(1839-1851) ; Normal College, a state-affiliated training school 
for teachers (1851-1856) ; and Trinity College, a liberal arts col- 
lege controlled by the North Carolina conferences of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South (1856-1892). Originally projected 
as a centennial history of Trinity College by Professor William 
K. Boyd, the manuscript was only partly written at the time of 
his death and was subsequently placed in the hands of Miss 
Chaffin. She has leaned heavily, and with due acknowledgment, 
upon Professor Boyd's work and has included one of his chapters, 
briefly summarizing the educational history of North Carolina 
prior to 1860, as an introduction. 

From its remote beginnings, Trinity College was designed to 
provide better educational advantages for the plain people of 
North Carolina. Prominent among the expressed aims of its 
leaders were those of "reaching the common walks of life with 
a more thorough education than had been previously afforded 
them" and of promoting "the interest of the great middle class 
of people." Generally Methodists, these leaders were drawn from 
the people whom the school sought to serve and were committed 
to the ideal of "a democratic Christian college." This was in 
sharp contrast to the early history of the University of North 
Carolina, whose governing board represented the ruling class and 
great landowners, where the first building was denounced as 
"a palace-like erection" maintained as a resort for the sons of 
the rich at the expense of the poor, where professors were criti- 
cized as aliens who threatened to introduce monarchical princi- 
ples and students were said to be addicts of vice and immorality. 

But piety and democracy did not always receive adequate 
financial support. Meager as were its needs, the college's debts 

[248] 



Book Reviews 249 

were often pressing, and efforts to raise funds frequently met 
with insufficient response. On January 14, 1886, the treasurer 
paid one member of the faculty the last dollar of his salary for 
1885, this being the first time a professor had been paid his salary 
in full since the Civil War. At times there was conflict with Ran- 
dolph-Macon College regarding the extent to which that institu- 
tion was entitled to support by North Carolina Methodists. 
Nevertheless, Trinity survived these and other obstacles and suc- 
ceeded in making a substantial contribution to the educational 
life of the state. In 1887 all but four of its graduates were living 
in North Carolina, among these being sixteen teachers, nine 
lawyers, seven clergymen, and four physicians. 

An especially important factor contributing to the success of 
Trinity was the work of a number of earnest and energetic lead- 
ers associated with it, in particular Brantley York, Braxton 
Craven, and John F. Crowell. Convenient summaries of the 
careers of these men are included by Miss Chaffin, along with 
careful appraisals of their accomplishments. Other topics ac- 
corded more or less extended treatment are the curriculum at 
various stages in the school's history, student and faculty life 
and activities, and the various efforts of the trustees to keep the 
college in operation, especially during the dark days of the Civil 
War and Reconstruction. The successive relations between the 
college and the Methodist Church are well described, as are the 
factors and deliberations resulting in the removal of the institu- 
tion to Durham. 

Superior to most college histories, Miss Chaffin's work is based 

upon extensive research not confined to annual catalogues and 

faculty and trustee minutes. Elaborate footnotes and a lengthy 

bibliography testify to the immense amount of source material, 

both manuscript and printed, that was read and digested in the 

preparation of the volume. 

James W. Patton. 

The University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill, N. C. 



250 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Impressions of Men and Movements at the University of North Carolina. 
By Henry McGilbert Wagstaff. (Chapel Hill: The University of North 
Carolina Press. 1950. Pp. ix, 110. $2.00.) 

To men and women connected with colleges elsewhere and 
especially to the thousands of present and former students and 
teachers of the University of North Carolina, this volume by 
Henry McGilbert Wagstaff could well be a source of information, 
a reminder of the past, and cause for pride in an institution which 
has come a long way since 1789. 

This brief volume was never intended to be a history of the 
University. The sketches resulted from President Frank P. 
Graham's request in 1941 that Dr. Wagstaff from his store of 
information, thoughts, ideas, and memories set down in per- 
manent form his impressions of men and movements from the 
beginning to 1930. At the time of his unexpected death in 1945, 
Dr. Wagstaff had prepared a first draft treating the historical 
background, establishment, and progress of the University 
through the period of Reconstruction and the reopening until 
the end of the service of Francis Preston Venable as president. 

The author discusses the almost desperate problem of finance, 
the bitter opposition to state-supported higher education from 
denominational forces, and the part played by political parties 
in the fortunes (or misfortunes) of the institution. 

Dr. Wagstaff (at the time affectionately nicknamed "Dr. Wig- 
glestick" by the students) was this reviewer's first teacher at 
Carolina. The sound scholarship and dry wit which characterized 
him in the classroom are also evident throughout the book. He 
was well qualified for the task assigned. Himself an alumnus, he 
was for thirty-eight years a member of the faculty, and, judging 
by his kindly, yet penetrating, characterizations, a keen analyst 
of human nature. It is a great pity that he was not destined to 
complete a work so well begun. 

After the death of the author, Dr. Louis R. Wilson edited the 
notes and arranged the chapters in chronological order according 
to administrations of the chief officials. In a prefatory note, the 
editor explains how the project was initiated and what disposi- 
tion was made of the manuscript. 

Gardner- Webb College, Nell Hines Harris. 

Boiling Springs, N. C. 



Book Reviews 251 

William Henry Belk: Merchant of the South. By LeGette Blythe. (Chapel 
Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1950. Pp. xiv, 225. $2.75.) 

Throughout dozens of southern communities from northern 
Virginia to Florida and westward to Arkansas the name "Belk 
Store" is a household term. Even "the foreigner" traveling 
through the South is wont to wonder at what is apparently the 
remarkable extent of the Belk clan, for in almost every good- 
sized town is seen prominent evidence of the mercantile union of 
Belk-Jones or Belk-Brown or the like. 

LeGette Blythe, experienced biographer and former literary 
editor of the Charlotte Observer, has produced a most interesting 
biography of William Henry Belk who opened his first store in 
1888 in Monroe, North Carolina, and proceeded to link his name 
with those of scores of southern merchants and to build a huge 
group of nearly 300 retail establishments doing an annual busi- 
ness is excess of $100,000,000. 

Biographer Blythe relates how W. H. Belk and his brother Dr. 
John Belk (1865-1928) recognized early the value of such inno- 
vations as an all-cash business, clearly marked retail prices with 
no haggling at the counter, and a "satisfaction or your money 
back" policy. Building upon the success of their Monroe begin- 
nings, the Belks extended their interests by training young, 
promising men to be merchants, setting them up in a store in a 
southern town, allowing the new managers complete freedom but 
extending to the new stores the benefits of mass purchasing. The 
result has been the erection of not a chain system (in fact the 
Belks deplore the term "system") but rather a family of stores 
in which each store retains its individuality while the group as a 
whole works for its common benefit. 

This biography, which offers "indisputable proof" of the value 
of American free enterprize, is the result of a close study of Belk 
the man and the merchant and of the Belk mercantile group. 
The volume is well-illustrated and indexed and contains, in 
addition, a chronological list of all the Belk stores. The author 
has obtained his information not from archival sources and 
secondary works but from extensive interviews with his subject 
and with Belk associates throughout the South. 



252 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Mr. Blythe reveals that he is not only an ardent admirer of 

his subject but also a good judge of human character and a 

skillful selector of the pertinent and interesting raw material 

which goes into the making of an attractive biography. 

Robert M. Langdon. 
United States Naval Academy, 
Annapolis, Md. 



The Church in the Wilderness: North Carolina Quakerism as Seen by 
Visitors. By Henry J. Cadbury. The Historical Lecture delivered at the 
Two Hundred and Fifty-First Session of North Carolina Yearly Meeting, 
Eighth Month, the Fourth, 1948. Second Publication of the North Carolina 
Friends Historical Society. (No date. Pp. 14.) 

Parallel Lines in Piedmont North Carolina Quaker and Moravian History. 
By Adelaide L. Fries. The Historical Lecture delivered at the Two Hun- 
dred and Fifty- Second Session of North Carolina Yearly Meeting, Eighth 
Month, the Third, 1949. (No date. Pp. 16.) 

These pamphlets were made possible by the remarkable care 
with which Friends and Moravians have preserved the records of 
their activities. The facts presented are not merely authentic 
in the usual sense of historical jargon. They convey to the reader 
a distinct impression of having been derived from a great body 
of valid historical materials outside the usual range of historians. 
Members of the craft generally will profit by the generosity of the 
North Carolina Friends Historical Society in publishing these 
lectures. 

The lecture of 1948 presents a series of impressions of visitors 
to North Carolina Friends and Friends Meetings. These visitors, 
the author explains, were the nearest approach the Friends ever 
made to a central bureaucracy with responsibility for maintain- 
ing administrative connection or doctrinal conformity among 
the autonomous Yearly Meetings. Visitors, hosts, and groups of 
believers are presented in successive stages of the transition from 
the frontier faith of seventeenth century Albemarle to late nine- 
teenth century Quakerism centering in the neighborhood of High 
Point and Greensboro. Antislavery and antiwar sentiments are 
emphasized as the chief factors of continuity in Quaker history. 

In the lecture of 1949, the late Adelaide L. Fries discounts 
rather heavily some of the assumptions of earlier historians con- 
cerning Moravians and Quakers. She intimates that the two 



Book Reviews 253 

groups were most alike in being different from the accepted 
standards in worship and attitude to the civil authorities. The 
practice of joining them in special acts of the General Assembly 
and their geographic proximity seem to have been the main 
factors in associating them in the minds of contemporaries and 
historians alike. This essay is a closely reasoned argument that 
this association is unwarranted from every standpoint except 
that of doctrinal agreement on military service and the taking 
of oaths. 

Paul Murray. 

East Carolina Teachers College, 
Greenville, N. C. 



Catawba Frontier, 1775-1781: Memories of Pensioners. By Mary Elinor 
Lazenby. (Washington, D. C; published by the compiler, 2333 Nebraska 
Ave. $2.00.) 

A few statements of the Revolutionary pensioners were pub- 
lished in the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, edited 
by Saunders and Clark fifty years ago, but the majority of these 
uneven recollections have been known only to professional his- 
torians and DAR genealogists. Many are worthless for serious 
research but a number contain invaluable hints and side lights 
for the local military and social historian. The best of these have 
been culled by Miss Lazenby and given for the first time to the 
general public. 

The majority of the pension papers quoted in Catawba Fron- 
tier come from the 1830's at which time most of the writers had 
passed their alloted three score and ten years. Discrepancies 
with respect to dates and chronology are not difficult to find and 
have in many instances been pointed out by the compiler. But 
there is a wealth of local information not easily available else- 
where. Particularly interesting are the revelations of informality 
during the Revolution. Volunteers appeared for a battle when 
one seemed imminent in their section and disappeared without 
leave-taking of their officers when the fighting was over. It was 
possible to hire substitutes if drafted and several of the pen- 
sioners were in the employ of others who for one reason or an- 
other did not choose to fight. 



254 The North Carolina Historical Review 

It would appear that, with few exceptions, veterans of ample 
means in the 1820's and 30's did not apply for pensions. As a 
result there are no statements from such prominent Catawba 
River soldiers as General Joseph Graham, Major John Davidson, 
Captain James Connor, Captain John Reid, and the Polks, who 
are known to have survived well into the period when pensions 
were easy and free. The services of many of these and of others 
of prominence who were already dead, however, are frequently 
referred to by privates and subalterns who served under them. 

The booklet is well printed, paper-bound, and carefully though 
not exhaustively indexed. The reviewer regrets that there was 
not an introductory chapter on pension laws, giving dates and 
conditions under which soldiers of the Revolution might draw 
relief from their government. Miss Lazenby has performed a 
valuable service to Piedmont historians, to the Sons and Daugh- 
ters of the American Revolution, and to all lovers of Catawba 
River lore. 

Chalmers G. Davidson. 

Davidson College, 
Davidson, N. C. 



Aerial Gunner from Virginia: the Letters of Don Moody to his Family 
during 1944. Edited by William Edwin Hemphill. (Richmond: Virginia 
State Library. 1950. Pp. xxx, 366.) 

This collection of letters was chosen by the director of the 
World War II History Division of the Virginia State Library 
because it contains an account in many ways representative of 
the experiences undergone by the approximately 300,000 Vir- 
ginians in uniform. 

Don Moody's army career, from his induction at the age of 
eighteen until his death in a crash in the South Pacific, lasted 
but ten months, and his actual overseas experience only three 
weeks. Yet throughout the entire period he wrote nearly every 
day to members of his family, and thus the nearly 200 letters in 
the collection provide a detailed record of daily army routine, 
matter-of fact, limited in perspective, and devoid of harrowing 
exploits or dramatic events. Don was most concerned with mat- 
ters of family interest and with his own personal failures and 



Book Reviews 255 

triumphs. The possibility of a furlough and the dread of a dental 
appointment loomed far larger than the general course of world 
events. 

Despite the repetitiousness and the stock expressions with 
which Don conveyed his feelings and attitudes, one gains a clear- 
impression not only of his reactions to army life but also of his 
close and affectionate relationship with his family. The letters 
would probably have retained more of their authentic flavor if 
the original spelling and grammar had not been corrected by the 
editor. It is also difficult to see the necessity for deleting the very 
mild sprinkling of profanity, which Don obviously thought in- 
offensive to his mother and sister. The editor has done a com- 
mendable job, however, in the insertion of material necessary for 
a full understanding of various references in the letters. 

Howard Braverman. 
1620 St. John's Place, 
Brooklyn, New York. 



The Papers of Randolph of Roanoke. A Preliminary Checklist of his Sur- 
viving Texts in Manuscript and in Print. By William E. Stokes, Jr., and 
Francis L. Berkeley, Jr. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Library. 
1950. Pp. 170.) 

Because of his long public service, his eccentric character and 
his numerous controversies, John Randolph of Roanoke invari- 
ably offers continued interest to students of history, nor is this 
interest confined solely to the subject of history since even majors 
in the subject of speech have written doctoral dissertations on 
the effectiveness of the oratory of the caustic Virginian. Con- 
sequently a guide to his writings and speeches, published and un- 
published, even though admitted by the compilers to be incom- 
plete, is most welcome. 

This volume, attractively bound with the Randolph coat of 
arms on the cover and a Gilbert Stuart portrait in the front, 
is the ninth in the Virginia Bibliographical Studies published 
by the University of Virginia Library. Arranged chronologically 
a total of 2,762 items is listed including writings and speeches 
to be found in more than twenty published sources and in various 
manuscript collections throughout the country. These range 



256 The North Carolina Historical Review 

from letters written by Randolph in 1781 at the age of eight to 
his stepfather, St. George Tucker, through his lengthy public 
career and end on a lugubrious note in 1833 with Randolph's 
measurements supplied by Robert R. Bringhurst, undertaker. 
For the year 1807 there are listed 136 items and for the next 
year 145. The writings of this period have a special interest for 
North Carolina because of Randolph's relations, friendly or 
otherwise, with her Congressmen such an Nathaniel Macon, 
Richard Stanford, Willis Alston, and Lemuel Sawyer. 

In their foreword the compilers state that the list is 
"preliminary and incomplete" and an explanation is given for 
the failure to include items from the House of Representative 
Papers in the National Archives. A mimeographed addendum 
accompanying the volume notes three manuscripts subsequently 
called to their attention by the Research Office of Colonial Wil- 
liamsburg. The inadvertent omission of certain items contained in 
the Henry Adams biography of Randolph is also noted. In spite of 
these acknowledged omissions, however, the checklist cannot fail 
to be of value to those who are interested in various phases of 
Randolph's career. It is hoped by the compilers that the publica- 
tion of the checklist "in its present state" will "draw the fire of 
numerous critics" so that with "corrections and additions" a 
more complete knowledge of this important figure from the Old 
Dominion will be available. 

D. H. Gilpatrick. 

Furman University, 
Greenville, S. C. 



State Papers and Public Addresses: Clarence W. Meadows, Twenty-second 
Governor of West Virginia, 1945-1949. (Charleston, West Virginia. 1950. 
Pp. xiii, 432.) 

In 1933 the state of West Virginia belatedly began to publish 
the official papers of its governors, and the present volume is the 
fourth in the series. The general nature of its contents does not, 
of course, differ from that of similar collections put out by other 
states; it consists chiefly of legislative messages, routine ad- 
dresses to various groups and organizations, politcial speeches, 
and some official correspondence. 



Book Reviews 257 

During the immediate postwar period West Virginia made 
considerable progress in the direction of educational reform, and 
documents dealing with this movement are among the more in- 
teresting in the compilation. Meadows was active in initiating 
legislation which provided for a survey of the state school system 
by Dr. George D. Strayer of Columbia University and in urging 
the adoption of the major recommendations of the Strayer report. 

The papers are introduced by an anonymous biographical 
sketch, written in the eulogistic style of a campaign biography ; 
the information provided about Meadows' career and personality 
is superficial and uncritical. The papers show few signs of edit- 
ing: although called for on numerous occasions, almost no ex- 
planatory notes appear, and the lack of an index considerably 
lessens the value of the volume. 

Howard Braverman. 

1620 St. John's Place, 

Brooklyn, New York. 



And the War Came. By Kenneth M. Stampp. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana 
State University Press. 1950. Pp. viii, 331. Illustrations, bibliography and 
index, $4.50.) 

This is a study of the development of public opinion in the 
North from the election of Lincoln until the surrender of Fort 
Sumter. During the campaign this opinion quite generally was 
that the threats of secession were mere gasconade against which 
it was unnecessary to take any provision. But after the election 
of Lincoln as secession changed from a threat to a reality it be- 
came necessary for the northern people to determine their at- 
titude toward disunion. From the beginning they had no thought 
of acquiescence ; they thought only of preventing it by concilia- 
tion or coercion. But of the conciliators only Crittenden offered 
to the South such concessions as would enable it to remain in the 
Union without continued subservience to a dominant and antag- 
onistic North. For the most part the compromises proposed were 
merely for the purpose of dividing the upper and lower South and 
of keeping the Southern people bemused until a Unionist reaction 
should set in among them. As neither of these things came to pass 
northern opinion solidified behind a policy of coercion thinly dis- 



258 The North Carolina Historical Review 

guised as law enforcement, any southern resistance to which was 
to be considered as aggression justifying a war of defense. This 
policy Lincoln adopted, announced in his inaugural address, and 
brought to fruition by engineering the Fort Sumter episode. 
Possessed then of their anticipated pretext the North united in 
a holy crusade to save the Union and thereby to destroy slavery, 
insure the dominance of northern business interests, civilize the 
southern people, and make the South worthy of its northern 
associates. 

The greatest contribution of this book is in its exposure of the 
hypocrisy of the northern conciliators; otherwise its findings 
have been anticipated by Randall, Craven, and many other writ- 
ers. The author has drawn his material chiefly from contempor- 
ary newspapers and private correspondence and has thus been 
able to make his study both accurate and full. The tone is caustic 
and the criticisms are often scathing. Throughout his book he re- 
fers to the northern people by the opprobrious term "Yankees." It 
cannot be said, however, that he shows partisanship and one has 
the feeling that if he were writing of southern opinion instead of 
northern he would be equally vitriolic. 

R. S. Cotterill, 

Florida State University, 

Tallassee, Fla. 



The Territorial Papers of the United States. Compiled and edited by Clarence 
Edwin Carter. Volume XVII. The Territory of Illinois, 1814-1818 . . . 
(Washington: United States Government Printing Office. 1950. Pp. v, 750. 
$4.00.) 

Records in federal archives relating to the administration of 
Illinois Territory are printed in volumes XVI (1809-1813) and 
XVII (1814-1818), of The Territorial Papers of the United 
States. An attempt was made to include every hitherto unpub- 
lished relevant document in the State and Post Office departments 
archives, also the legislative memorials and petitions from Il- 
linois. Selected documents only on lands and Indian affairs are 
included. 

That rare first Illinois imprint, the Supreme Court Law of 
1814, is reproduced in facsimile and the Executive Register for 



Book Reviews 259 

Illinois Territory in the Illinois State Archives has been re-edited 
and reprinted here. (The latter was first printed in Illinois State 
Historical Library Publications, volume III.) Since this Supreme 
Court Law volume is of interest to bibliographers as well as to 
historians, one regrets, but does not quibble over, the omission 
of those pages containing the Memorial to Congress which Dr. 
Carter chose to print instead from the original manuscript in 
the Congressional files. It is unfortunate that the reproduction 
was not made from the better copy in the Illinois State Historical 
Library. 

The high standards of selection and editing which have charac- 
terized all this series of Territorial Papers of the United States 
have been continued in this volume. 

Those who will be using this compilation for source material 
will regret that time, space, and money precluded the inclusion 
of a bibliography of additional cognate documents to be found in 
the federal and Illinois State archives and also of documents 
printed elsewhere. While Dr. Carter expresses the opinion that 
nothing significant has been omitted in specified fields, any selec- 
tion is necessarily selective. Such a list of documents omitted 
here would prevent duplication of effort in checking sources. 

The unpublished calendars of federal archives relating to the 
Mississippi Valley made some years ago by Dr. Newton Mereness, 
though incomplete, can be used as a checklist of sorts. The cards 
on Illinois are in the Illinois Historical Survey of the University 
of Illinois. 

The Illinois Archives contain the executive file of documents 
from which the Executive Register was compiled, records of the 
territorial treasurer and of the Territorial General Assembly 
but no further governor's correspondence. 

Margaret C. Norton. 

Illinois State Library, 
Springfield, 111. 



260 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Fifteenth Annual Report of the Archivist of the United States, for the Year 
Ending June 30, 1949. National Archives Publication No. 50-5. (Washing- 
ton: United States Government Printing Office. 1950. Pp. vi, 57.) 

Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the United States Senate. Com- 
piled by Harold E. Hufford and Watson G. Caudill. National Archives 
Publication No. 50-8; Preliminary Inventory No. 23. (Washington: United 
States Government Printing Office. 1950. Pp. x, 284.) 

When the United States established the National Archives in 
1935 to serve as the official depository for such records of its 
agencies as are worthy of preservation, a North Carolinian,* 
R. D. W. Connor, became the first Archivist of the United States. 
Hence it is natural that readers of this journal feel a special and 
continuing interest in the progress of the National Archives, even 
though that institution has been administered for a decade by 
others. 

Evidences of progress fill the pages of the Archivist's latest 
annual report. There has been improvement in the ways the 
government's records are currently created and filed, in the 
methods by which the less significant, duplicating, and meaning- 
less records are screened for destruction, and in the preservation 
and accessibility for research of the 894,857 cubic feet of non- 
current records which were in the Archivist's custody at the end 
of the year. Proof of the value of the whole effort is to be found 
in the twin facts that nearly 193,000 reference services were 
performed within the year for other agencies of the federal 
government and that about 172,000 such services were rendered 
to the public. Such statistics may seem dull, but the opposite is 
true of the ingenious uses to which this amazing collection of 
manuscripts, maps, photographs, motion pictures, and sound 
recordings was put by inquirers into widely varied facets of 
American life. Weather Bureau records were utilized to deter- 
mine the date of the burial of Edgar Allan Poe, to mention as an 
example just one of the least surprising and least important 
"finds" of the year. 

This fifteenth annual report of the Archivist is the last which 
will be published separately. On July 1, 1949, in a reorganization 
of the federal government's agencies, the National Archives be- 
came subordinate to the General Services Admisistration. The 
Administrator of General Services will report to Congress, and 



Book Reviews 261 

it is not certain that what he reports will be published. Thus 
endeth a series of fifteen instructive booklets which have much 
greater value than run-of-the-mill governmental reports. 

The records of the United States Senate have survived rather 
completely two transfers (from New York City to Philadelphia to 
Washington), the British sacking of the Capitol in 1814, and 
various other perils. They amount to 6,558 cubic feet. They 
concern executive and judicial functions as well as legislative 
matters. An indication of the scope of their contents can be 
found in the fact that the published inventory of these records 
covering the years 1789-1946 includes an index of more than 
fifty pages. The materials in the National Archives are not 
placed there for dead storage; they should be more accessible 
than the gold at Fort Knox. Such guides to these records as the 
helpful inventory of Senate records should be issued in redoubled 
volume during the National Archives' second fifteen years. 

W. Edwin Hemphill. 

Virginia State Library, 
Richmond, Va. 

Virginia Gazette Index, 1736-1780. By Lester J. Cappon and Stella F. Duff. 
(Williamsburg: The Institute of Early American History and Culture. 
1950. Volume I, pp. ix, 1-646; volume II, pp. 647-1314. $60.00.) 

It would be superfluous to expound the historical value of the 
Virginia Gazette of Williamsburg, one of the oldest newspapers 
in the southern colonies. This index is intended to be "a historical 
work of reference rather than an alphabetical list of names and 
places" ; subjects, therefore, are given precedence over geo- 
graphical places and names. Cross references, however, render 
the index useful (to a limited extent) to persons with a geo- 
graphical approach, or to that larger group interested primarily 
in names. A typical subject reference is Alexandria, Virginia. 
Some of the subordinate references are "army supplies bought 
at," "committees of inspection," "defense of," and "settlement 
encouraged by General Assembly." 

This index will be of value to students of North Carolina his- 
tory. The North Carolina Department of Archives and History 
already has 265 typed pages of North Carolina items from the 
Virginia Gazette, January 10, 1771, to December 20, 1776. One 



262 The North Carolina Historical Review 

may expect, therefore, that a great many such items appeared 
during a period of 44 years. 

Lester J. Cappon, editor of publications, and Stella F. Duff, 
senior indexer, are to be congratulated upon the completion of a 
project which required some eight years and the screening of 
1,703 newspaper issues. It is to be hoped that other states will 
find it possible to undertake similar projects. 

It is interesting to note that a microfilm file of the news- 
papers here indexed has been prepared from original issues and 
from photocopies. Unfortunately, the reviewer has not seen the 
microfilm file, but he, along with many others, will look forward 
to its appearance. It may be expected, therefore, that when the 
file is distributed, this index, a monumental work, will be widely 
used. 

W. Frank Burton. 

State Department of Archives and History, 
Raleigh, N. C. 



HISTORICAL NEWS 

A copy of an article, "The Scotch-Irish and the Coming of the 
Revolution in North Carolina," by E. R. R. Green, reprinted from 
Irish Historical Studies, vol. VII, no. 261 (September 1950), 
has been received. This article resulted from a seminar conducted 
by professor R. L. Meriwether at the University of South Caro- 
lina, 1947-1948. 

Mr. W. Frank Burton, head of the Division of Archives and 
Manuscripts of the State Department of Archives and History, 
has been appointed a member of the committee on buildings and 
equipment of the Society of American Archivists for the current 
year. 

The State Department of Archives and History announces 
that the following publications are ready for distribution: Ad- 
dresses, Letters and Papers of John Christoph Blucher Ehring- 
haus Governor of North Carolina, 1938-1987, edited by David 
Leroy Corbitt (1950), pp. 509, illustrated, free upon application 
to the Division of Publications of the Department; and The 
Papers of Willie Person Mangum, edited by Henry Thomas 
Shanks, volume I, 1807-1832 (1950), pp. 613, maps and illustra- 
tions. Requests for copies of the latter publication should be sent 
to the Division of Publications of the Department together with 
a wrapping and mailing fee of 50 cents. 

Dr. Christopher Crittenden has spoken on the State Depart- 
ment of Archives and History and its program to groups on the 
following dates and in the following towns: December 20, Kin- 
ston and New Bern; December 21, Jacksonville; December 22, 
Lumberton; January 3, Durham; January 19, Chapel Hill; and 
January 23, Raleigh. 

On February 7 Mrs. Joye E. Jordan, head of the Division of 
Museums of the State Department of Archives and History, and 
Dr. Crittenden met with a group at Pembroke State Teachers 
College to discuss plans for establishing a historical museum at 
the college. 

[26S ] 



264 The North Carolina Historical Review 

In Rocky Mount on February 27 Dr. Crittenden addressed a 
joint meeting of the Daughters of the American Colonists, the 
Daughters of Colonial Wars, and the United States Daughters 
of 1812. He spoke on the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, for the 
meeting occurred on the 175th anniversary of that battle. 

Dr. A. R. Newsome has resigned as head of the history de- 
partment at the University of North Carolina, but will continue 
to teach. Dr. Wallace E. Caldwell has been appointed to fill the 
vacancy. 

Mr. D. L. Corbitt, head of the Division of Publications of the 

State Department of Archives and History, delivered an address 
before the Johnston-Pettigrew Chapter of the United Daughters 
of the Confederacy on March 21 on "The Formation of the North 
Carolina Counties." 

On February 13 six juniors and seniors of Meredith College 
began the internship course offered by the Department of Ar- 
chives and History in cooperation with the college. 

The following will teach during the first summer term in the 
graduate school of Appalachian State Teachers College: Dr. 
Philip J. Green, professor of history at Queens College, Char- 
lotte ; Dr. James W. Moffitt, professor of history at Furman Uni- 
versity, Greenville, S. C. ; and Dr. Harry E. Dickinson, head, de- 
partment of social studies, Howard College, Birmingham, Ala- 
bama. Dr. Homer R. Greenholt, professor of history at Lenoir 
Rhyne College, Hickory, will teach during the second summer 
term. 

Professor John M. Justice, member of the social studies de- 
partment of Appalachian State Teachers College, will do research 
at the University of North Carolina during the summer of 1951. 

Professor E. C. Duggins, member of the social studies depart- 
ment of Appalachian State Teachers College, has been granted 
a leave of absence to return to the Navy. 



Historical News 265 

Mr. Kenneth E. Crouch, journalist and historian of Bedford, 
Virginia, has made a collection of the state songs of all the states 
in the United States and has presented them to the Library of 
the University of Virginia. Not only has Mr. Crouch collected 
copies of the original songs, but he has collected more than 1,300 
letters and 100 pictures of composers, sheet music, and clippings 
dealing with such songs. 

On January 12 the Directors of the Roanoke Island Historical 
Association met in the Hall of History of the State Department 
of Archives and History and made plans for the eleventh annual 
presentation of Paul Green's "The Lost Colony." At this meeting 
Mrs. Inglis Fletcher of Edenton, on behalf of the Society for 
the Preservation of Antiquities, offered a sum up to $2,500 for 
renovating and remodeling some of the stage settings in order- 
to make them historically more authentic. Mrs. Charles A. Can- 
non of Concord proposed that the Garden Clubs of North Caro- 
lina be invited to sponsor a Shakespearian garden at Fort Ra- 
leigh. Mr. Guy Lemmon suggested that some land near the 
theatre, now held by the North Carolina Seashore Commission, 
might be turned over to the Association. Mr. Bill Sharpe of Ra- 
leigh was elected chairman succeeding Mrs. Charles A. Cannon. 
Later in January the governor and council of state allotted from 
the Contingency and Emergency Fund $7,228.40 to make up the 
operating deficit for the 1950 season. 

Mr. Henry Chafetz, 84th Avenue, New York 3, New York, is 
preparing a book and would like to have information concerning 
gambling incidents that have taken place in North Carolina in 
which large sums of money, the lives of persons or animals, and 
other unusual stakes have depended on the turning of a card, 
the rolling of dice, the running of horses, or other gambling- 
procedures. 

A copy of The Charlestown Directory for 1782 and The 
Charleston Directory for 1785 with a foreword by Mary A. 
Sparkman has been received. It is published by the Historical 
Commission of Charleston, Charleston, S. C. 



266 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The United States Naval Academy announces fellowships for 
research in naval history. Eligible are candidates with or without 
advanced degrees who have shown interest in naval and military 
history and have demonstrated ability in research. Appointments 
are made for one year on a renewable basis. Stipends will be 
adjusted to the needs of the individual fellows and are expected 
to vary between $3,000 and $8,000 per annum. Fellows are 
selected by a committee consisting of naval officers and civilian 
historians. Applications must be received not later than May 15, 
1951. Choice of fellows will be made not later than July 1, 1951. 
Forms of application will be mailed on request addressed to 
the Superintendent, U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. 

Books received include B. A. Botkin, A Treasury of Southern 
Folklore (New York: Crown Publishers, 1949) ; Henry McGil- 
bert Wagstaff, Impressions of Men and Movements at the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina (Chapel Hill: The University of North 
Carolina Press, 1950) ; William Edwin Hemphill, Aerial Gunner 
from Virginia: The Letters of Don Moody to his Family During 
1944 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1950) ; State Papers 
and Addresses, Clarence W. Meadows Tiventy-Second Governor 
of West Virginia, 1945-1949 (Charleston: West Virginia, 1950) ; 
Charles Edward Cauthen, South Carolina Goes to War, 1860- 
1865, The James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science 
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1950) ; Ken- 
neth M. Stampp, And The War Came: The North and the Se- 
cession Crisis, 1860-1861 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Uni- 
versity Press, 1950) ; William E. Stokes, Jr., and Francis L. 
Berkeley, Jr., The Papers of Randolph of Roanoke, A Prelim- 
inary Checklist of his Surviving Texts in Manuscript and in 
Print (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Library, with as- 
sistance from the Research Council of the Richmond Area Uni- 
versity Center, 1950) ; Garland A. Hendricks, Biography of a 
Country Church (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1950) ; 
W. Darrell Overdyke, The Know-Nothing Party in the South 
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1950) ; Aubrey 
Lee Brooks, A Southern Lawyer: Fifty Years at the Bar (Chapel 
Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1950) ; Alexander 



Historical News 267 

Crosby Brown, The Sheet Iron Steamboat Codorus; John Elgar 
and the First Metal Hull Vessel Built in the United States (New- 
port News, Virginia: The Mariners' Museum, 1950) ; William B. 
Hesseltine, Confederate Leaders in the New South (Baton 
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1950) ; Francis S. 
Philbrick, The Laws of Illinois Territory, 1809-1818 (Spring- 
field: Illinois State Historical Library, 1950) ; Samuel Proctor, 
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward: Florida's Fighting Democrat 
(Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1950) ; Archibald 
Henderson, Forty-Sixth Annual Phi Beta Kappa Address, Alpha 
Chapter of North Carolina. The Undying Flame, the Story of its 
Lighting (1950) ; J. H. Easterby, Guide to the Study and Reading 
of South Carolina History. South Carolina Bibliographies no. 2 
(Columbia: The Historical Commission of South Carolina, 
1950) ; John A. Oates, The Story of Fayetteville and the Upper 
Cape Fear (Fayetteville, N. C. : John A. Oates, 1950) ; Walter 
Whitaker, in collaboration with Staley A. Cook and A. Howard 
White, Centennial History of Alamance County, 181+9-19 J+9 (Burl- 
ington, N. C. : Burlington Chamber of Commerce, 1950) ; C. A. 
McMahan, The People of Atlanta, A Demographic Study of Geor- 
gia's Capital City (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 

1950) ; Lucille Griffith, Yours Til Death, Civil War Letters of 
John W. Cotton (University: University of Alabama Press, 

1951) ; Albert D. Kirwan, Revolt of the Rednecks, Mississippi 
Politics: 1876-1925 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 
1951) ; Harden F. Taylor, Survey of the Marine Fisheries of 
North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina 
Press, 1951). 



CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE 

Di\ Donald J. Rulfs is an assistant professor of English at 
North Carolina State College, Raleigh, N. C. 

Dr. Christopher Crittenden is director of the State Depart- 
ment of Archives and History and secretary of the State Literary 
and Historical Association, Raleigh, N. C. 

Mr. Richard Walser is an assistant professor of English at 
North Carolina State College, Raleigh, N. C. 

Mr. William Burlie Brown is a teaching fellow of American 
history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. 

Miss Dorothy Lloyd Gilbert is an associate professor of Eng- 
lish at Guilford College, Guilford College, N. C, 

Mr. George Myers Stephens is owner of the Stephens Press and 
publisher of The Southern Packett, Asheville, N. C. 

Dr. Elizabeth Gregory McPherson is a reference consultant of 
the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Miss Mary Lindsay Thornton is librarian, North Carolina 
Collection, University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill, 
N. C. 



iwi 



The North Carolina 
Historical Review 

Vol. XXVIII JULY, 1951 Number 3 

LEGAL EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA, 1820-1860 
By Fannie Memory Farmer 

The matter of getting a legal education in the years prior 
to the Civil War was not as difficult as it is today. That is, 
there was no requirement of any particular time of study; and 
there were no prerequisite courses. A young man could study 
alone for a few months and then try the bar examination; he 
could arrange to read law with some established practitioner ; he 
might prefer to attend one of the so-called law schools in North 
Carolina; or he might go out of his home state to one of the 
northern schools. 1 Legal education was more practical and less 
theoretical than it is today. The student generally watched the 
lawyer perform the routine tasks in his office, went with him 
into the courtroom, and picked up bits of information from older 
men and from books which the teacher owned. Several of the 
lawers who formed or organized schools began putting the in- 
struction on a more systematic basis than had been the case at 
first, yet the law teacher continued to practice his profession 
first and to teach second. 

Law was a popular profession in the ante-bellum years. The 
editor of the North Carolina University Magazine wrote in 1857, 
"Law stands first in respectability in the eyes of the young man, 
and consequently the greater number must choose that. . . ." 2 
A goodly number did choose the law: the 1850 census, the first 
to list the professions, gave the number of lawyers in North 
Carolina as 399. 3 The census of 1860 listed the number as 500. 4 



1 After 1800 few. men studied law in. England; before that date, however, a goodly number 
of North Carolinians were admitted to the 'English Inns of Court. See Joseph Gregoire de 
Roulhac Hamilton, "Southern Members of the Inns of Court," North Carolina Historical 
Review , X (October, .1933),- 274,.. 279. . . . 

2 "Editorial Table," North. Carolina University' Magazine, VII (November, 1857), 187. 

3 Seventh Census of tlie United States, 1850, 318, 
* Eighth Ceneug of the United States, I860, 363. 

[271] 



V 



272 The North Carolina Historical Review 

While the law had a high standing in the eyes of the public, 
some young men had a difficult time in making up their minds 
to pursue such a vocation. Victor M. Murphey, son of Archibald 
D. Murphey, wrote to Thomas Ruffin in 1828 stating that he 
would rather be an able advocate than be a member of any 
other profession, because "the brightest ornaments of the Bar 
are the brightest ornaments of Human Nature." But, he added, 
he sought a more lucrative profession than law; even though 
his father wanted him to become a lawyer, he believed his pros- 
pects in medicine were better. He wrote that "The study of 
Medicine is generally considered the dernier resort of all Block- 
heads" ; nevertheless, he decided to be a doctor. 5 

William K. Ruffin, son of Judge Thomas Ruffin, in discussing 
a similar problem, wrote that medicine was distasteful to him; 
if a mistake should be made by a physician, he might easily 
"deprive a fellow-being of his existence." He did not think he 
was suited to law because he could not express himself easily; 
neither could he wrap himself around an abstruse point of law, 
nor did he believe he could "ever become skilled in the arts of 
chicanery." Judge Ruffin evidently encouraged his son to pursue 
a legal career, for a few days later William wrote that he wished 
as much as his father did that he possessed the talents for the 
legal profession. He suggested the idea of reading law for a year 
or two in order to determine whether or not he was legally in- 
clined, 6 a plan which he carried out. 7 

After the decision to study law was made, a young man had to 
decide where he would study. The relatively few who decided 
to read law alone sometimes found the ordeal very trying. They 
had to use any books they could borrow or buy. They often 
had to work while they were studying; and, of course, this 
activity sometimes interfered with the legal studies. Edwin 
Godwin Reade, who began to read law by himself in 1833, was 
licensed to practice two years after he began his reading course. 8 
William Garnett wrote to Thomas Ruffin in 1824 saying that he 
had been reading law by himself and was considering practicing 



6 Joseph Gregoire de Roulbac Hamilton, editor, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin (Raleigh, 
1920), I. 439-440. 

8 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, I, 514-515, 520-521. 

7 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 36-37. 

8 Albert Coates, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV 
(June, 1946), 315. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 273 

in Virginia, but that the prospects were discouraging there. He 
wanted to know whether the opportunities were better in North 
Carolina than in Virginia. 9 Edward J. Warren taught school, 
studied law in his spare moments, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1848. 10 George Vaughan Strong, born in 1827, was graduated 
from the University of North Carolina at the age of eighteen. 
He worked for a brief period, and finally moved to Goldsboro 
to become the owner and editor of the Goldsboro Telegraph. 
While editing the paper he studied law alone. 11 The men who 
read law by themselves and who had to use the books they were 
able to borrow were under a handicap in that they could not 
select the books they would like to read, but had to use and study 
whatever was available for a short time. Those who worked and 
studied at the same time must have been extremely busy ; most 
of them learned enough law to pass the bar examination within 
a two-year period. 

Though a moderate number of young men read law alone, 
most lav/ students studied at one of the so-called law schools or 
under the tutelage of an experienced practitioner. Many of the 
best-known lawyers of North Carolina taught a few pupils as a 
side line to their primary vocation. The most successful of these 
teachers soon found themselves with so many pupils that they 
became conductors of schools. Thomas Ruffin was one of the 
few exceptions. 

The prospective pupil who wanted training under a prac- 
titioner had to make his own arrangements with some lawyer 
who he felt would undertake his legal education. The transac- 
tions between the two were often on a very personal basis. 
Captain Herndon Haralson wrote to Archibald D. Murphey in 
1820 asking that lawyer to help his son by allowing him to read 
in Murphey's library or by giving him counsel. 12 William H. 
Ruffin wrote to Thomas Ruffin telling him that his nephew, 
John Haywood, was going to Hillsboro to study either law or 
medicine. If he decided on law, the writer hoped that Thomas 
Ruffin would direct the boy ; if he decided in favor of medicine, 



9 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, I, 316-317. 

10 Lindsay C. Warren, Beaufort County's Contribution to a Notable Era of North Carolina 
(Washington, 1930), 4. 

11 Frank A. Daniels, "Address by Hon. Frank A. Daniels on Presentation of a Portrait 
of the late George Vaughan Strong to the Supreme Court of North Carolina . . . ," 206 
North Carolina Supreme Court Reports, 930-931. The North Carolina Supreme Court Reports 
are hereinafter cited as N. C, preceded by the number of the report. 

"William Henry Hoyt, editor, The Papers of Archibald D. Murphey (Raleigh, 1914), I, 176. 



274 The North Carolina Historical Review 

he wanted Ruffin to see that his nephew was placed with a 
certain doctor for the study of that profession. 13 The lawyer 
who engaged in teaching as an avocation was expected to be a 
friend in more ways than one ! 

Kenneth Rayner wrote from Tarboro on April 27, 1830, asking 
if he could study law under Ruff in's guidance. He said : 

You will recollect that during the session of the Legislature, 
my friend Louis D. Wilson spoke to you relative to your inten- 
tions with regard to taking law-students, and proposed to you 
my name as one wishing to pursue the study of law under your 
observation. He informed me that your reply was you were will- 
ing to take a few Law students, and I now repeat to you my 
wish to become your student. I have been reading with Mr. Lloyd 
about six months, and have nearly completed Blackstone and 
Cruise, and wishing to finish my studies with you, I request that 
you will immediately inform me by mail what may be your pres- 
ent intentions as to taking students, and whether or not you 
accede to my proposal of becoming one. You will also please in- 
form me upon what terms I can read with you, that I may make 
my arrangements for paying you in due time. 

Should you conclude to receive me, I expect to go up and com- 
mence some time in June. You will please inform me immediately 
what may be your conclusion with regard to my proposition, that 
I may take measures accordingly. 14 

Henry S. Clark wrote to Ruffin that if he "could but have the 
benefit of your tuition and direction, it would afford [me], no 
inconsiderable degree of pleasure and satisfaction." He asked 
that Ruffin tell him about boarding places with respectable 
families. 15 Robert W. Brown wrote in 1829 requesting that Ruf- 
fin take his son, John Potts Brown, as a pupil. He, too, inquired 
about board and asked if his son could live with Ruff in's family. 16 
Occasionally a student did live with the lawyer's family while he 
studied. For example, James C. Dobbin lived with Judge Robert 
Strange and his family during part of the time that he studied 
law under that gentleman. 17 



13 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, I, 235. 

14 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 10. This letter was the beginning of a 
close friendship between Ruffin and Rayner. See footnote, Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas 
Ruffin, II, 10. John Hill Wheeler, Historical Sketches of North Carolina from 158J, to 1851 
(Philadelphia, 1851), II, 209, reveals that Rayner did study law, but the name of his instruc- 
tor is not given. 

10 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, I, 426-427. Clark did become a lawyer. See 
Wheeler, Historical Sketches of North Carolina from 1584 to 1851, II, 29. 

16 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, I, 475-476. In a postscript, Brown told 
Ruffin that he had a vessel just in from Liverpool and that he was sending an English 
cheese to him. 

17 James Banks, "A Biographical Sketch of the Late James C. Dobbin," North Carolina 
l/niversity Magazine, IX (February, I860), 822. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 275 

H. P. Poindexter inquired in January, 1832, if his nephew, 
Thomas L. Clingman, could begin studying law under Ruffin 
the next summer. He said that he was writing early so as to have 
time to apply elsewhere if Ruffin could not take the boy. In 
July the same man wrote saying that evidently Ruffin had not 
received his letter since he had had no reply. He reiterated his 
inquiry and said his nephew would like to begin in the fall. 18 
Ruffin either failed to reply to the letters or responded negative- 
ly, because Clingman studied law under William A. Graham of 
Hillsboro. 19 

In 1832 Giles Mebane wrote saying that he understood that 
Ruffin had all the students he could take, but he wondered if he 
could make an occasional visit to Ruffin's library to get books 
and to be examined. But of course, since he preferred being 
under direct supervision, he applied to spend half of his time 
under Ruffin's direction. 20 Evidently Ruffin replied favorably 
because Mebane did receive his legal education under that noted 
lawyer. 21 

It is obvious that the arrangements which were made were 
adapted to individual needs. In studying under a practitioner, a 
student began when he wished, studied as little or as much as he 
pleased, and was more or less on his own so far as learning law 
was concerned. There were neither grades nor definite require- 
ments. The lawyer who engaged in teaching might be conscien- 
tious and try to educate his students to the best of his ability, 
or he might let them shift for themselves in any way that they 
could. The system was deficient in many ways, but no one can 
deny the fact that some of the best known lawyers in all of 
North Carolina's history were produced by this method of in- 
struction. 

Nearly all of the leaders of the bar and bench were teachers 
of aspiring students of the law. The student in the private office 
received little formal instruction. He read his preceptor's books, 
assisted in the office work, learned to prepare legal instruments, 
and became acquainted with the process of handling cases in 



18 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 55, 60. 

19 Clingman lost his eyesight for several months, during which time his sister read law 
to him. He studied under Graham after his sight was restored. See Jane P. Kerr, "Brigadier- 
General Thomas L. Clingman, The Trinity Archive, XII (March, 1899), 390. 

20 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 60. 

21 Samuel A'Court Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina (Greens- 
boro, 1905-1917), VII, 335, 



276 The North Carolina Historical Review 

their entirety. He learned how to gather evidence, investigate au- 
thorities, draw pleadings, try a case in court, and appeal his case. 
The law office and the courtroom gave him a practical educa- 
tion. 22 The student in the law office was grounded in the actual 
practice of law during the early years of this period. About the 
middle of the nineteenth century the emphasis began to shift and 
the history of law and jurisprudence was presented to the pupils. 
During the early years, however, theory was not stressed; stu- 
dents read with experienced lawyers and acted as assistants 
throughout the period of training. The relationship more nearly 
resembled that of apprentice and master than pupil and teacher. 
Law students watched their teachers in court and then held moot 
courts for their own benefit. For example, in 1825 William A. 
Graham, while a student under Ruffin, 23 wrote to his teacher 
who was away, saying that the law class had instituted a moot 
court, he believed before Ruffin went away. The meetings were 
held weekly ; and Graham thought that they would prove to be of 
value "if properly attended to." 24 

George Sharswood, writing on legal ethics, stated as his thesis 
the necessity of frequent examinations by lawyers who undertook 
to do any teaching so that they might be able to ascertain the 
types of minds which the students had. Sharswood deemed it a 
great advantage to a young man to have a "judicious and ex- 
perienced friend . . ." watching his progress. 25 The student was 
fortunate indeed if his teacher measured up to the principles as 
they were laid down by Sharswood. 

As has been indicated, Ruffin was one of the most popular 
of the office teachers, but David L. Swain, Robert Strange, 
William Gaston, David F. Caldwell, and Archibald D. Murphey 
were among the many lawyers who instructed students in their 
offices. 26 Some of the latter became important leaders in law and 
statecraft in the state. 



22 Albert Coates, A Task of Legal Education in North Carolina (n. p., n. d.), 14. 

23 Robert Digges Wimberly Connor and others. North Carolina, Rebuilding an Ancient 
Commonwealth (Chicago, 1928), III, 534. 

24 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, I, 331-332. 

25 George Sharswood, An Essay on Professional Ethics (Philadelphia, 1884), 197-198. 

20 For example, Caldwell taught Burton Craige. See Archibald Henderson, "Burton Craige 
Was Powerful Leader in Western North Carolina," News and Observer, January 30, 1927. 
He also taught Burgess Sidney Gaither. Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of 
North Carolina, II, 94. James C. Dobbin studied under Robert Strange. Banks, "A Bio- 
graphical Sketch of the Late James C. Dobbin," North Carolina University Magazine, IX 
(February, 1860), 322. Nicholas Washington Woodfin was one of Swain's pupils. Ashe and 
others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, II, 481-482. William Gaston taught, 
among others, Thomas Sparrow, William Blount Rodman, Sr., William Waightstill Avery, 



Legal Education in North Carolina 277 

Representatives of the bench who taught included Judges 
Robert B. Gilliam, Thomas Settle, 27 John Hall 28 and Augustus 
Moore. 29 Not only judges, but lesser lights among the legal pro- 
fession engaged in teaching a pupil or two now and then. For 
example, Thomas N. Mann, a member of the Nash County bar, 
taught Bartholomew F. Moore ; 30 Augustus Moore read law with 
Charles R. Kinney of Elizabeth City; 31 Louis D. Henry studied 
under Edward Graham of New Bern. 32 These and numerous other 
lawyers helped educate young men for their profession. Without 
this private instruction, North Carolina would have been far 
poorer than it was in the number and quality of its lawyers. 
These men who allowed young students to use their libraries 
and to observe them in action as practicing lawyers rendered 
an important service to the state in the years when law schools 
were small and not firmly established. 

Not infrequently a student was fortunate enough to have a 
lawyer relative under whom he could study. Robert P. Dick read 
law under his father; 33 Thomas Ruffin, Jr., studied under his 
father and under his brother William; 34 Willie P. Mangum, Jr., 
began his studies with his father, but his father died and he had 
to complete them elsewhere ; 35 Ruf us Barringer studied with his 
brother, D. M. Barringer, and later with Richmond M. Pearson 
at Richmond Hill. 36 Still others studied in offices outside of North 
Carolina. James Johnston Pettigrew read law in Baltimore and 
Charleston offices; 37 and Michael Hoke had part of his legal 
training in a Virginia office, 38 to mention but two examples. 

and Hamilton Chamberlain Jones. See Warren, Beaufort County's Contribution to a Notable 
Era of North Carolina, 5; Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, 
III, 346-347, and VII, 9, 268. Willie P. Mangum, Jr., Peter Mallett Hale, and Sion Hart 
Rogers were taught by Judge George Edmund Badger. See Ashe and others (eds.), 
Biographical History of North Carolina, V, 259, and VIII, 186, 436. A few of Archibald 
Murphey's outstanding pupils were Thomas Ruffin, Bartlett Yancey, James T. Morehead, 
and William J. Bingham. See William A. Graham, "Memorial of Hon. Archibald D. Murphey, 
Late a Judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina," in Hoyt, The Papers of Archibald 
Murphey, I, xxv. 

27 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, II, 442-443, 109. 

28 W. J. Peele (ed.), Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians (Raleigh, 1898), 306. 

29 Pulaski Cowper, "Reminiscences and Anecdotes of the North Carolina Bar," North 
Carolina University Magazine, XIV (April, 1895), 347-350. 

30 Peele (ed.), Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians, 378. 

31 Cowper, "Reminiscences and Anecdotes of the North Carolina Bar," North Carolina 
University Magazine, XIV (April, 1895), 347. 

82 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, II, 163. 
^Walter Clark, "History of the Superior and Supreme Courts of North Carolina," The 
North Carolina Booklet, XVIII (October, 1918), 91. 

84 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, V, 360. 

35 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, V, 259. 

36 Ashe and others (eds.). Biographical History of North Carolina, I, 116. 

37 Peele (ed.), Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians, 415. 

38 Ashe and others (eds.). Biographical History of North Carolina, I, 309-310. 



278 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Study in a law office was far more haphazard than it was sys- 
tematic. The student picked up what law he could from being 
around the practicing attorney and reading his books. But when 
the lawyer went out on the circuit, the student was left to study 
alone — as little or as much as he wished. It soon became apparent 
that systematic instruction would be of greater advantage to a 
student than the scattered comments of a lawyer who was busy in 
court most of the time. The lawyer found that teaching was a 
good way both to supplement his income and, after retiring, 
to add to his savings. 39 Several of the most successful teachers 
organized "schools" and put the instruction on a more satisfac- 
tory basis than it had been. Even so, teaching was often second- 
ary to practicing. John L. Bailey in 1845 gave notice to young 
men desiring to study law that he would instruct them "during 
the time he is not necessarily attending his Courts." 40 William 
H. Battle arranged for David L. Swain to "attend" to his private 
school in Chapel Hill while he was on the circuits. 41 

The first school to be advertised in the newspapers of North 
Carolina was that of John Louis Taylor. Taylor had been teach- 
ing students for a number of years, but he did not formally open 
a school until 1822. 42 He advertised: 

The Subscriber having lately, at the request of some of his old 
friends and pupils, undertaken the professional tuition of an 
additional number of Students, to whose improvement his con- 
stant residence at home enables him to pay more attention than 
heretofore, is encouraged to believe that his mode of instruction 
may be rendered more extensively useful by being made public. 

He is desirous of affording to the youth of the country an op- 
portunity of acquiring a scientific knowledge of their own Laws 
without the inconvenience and expense of seeking it in other 
States, and of assisting them in a course of studies which even 
to those who are not destined to the profession, is of great im- 
portance in the ordinary affairs of social life and seems necessary 
to the completion of an education adapted to the duties imposed 
by our free institutions. 43 

This institution, located in Raleigh, was the first place for legal 
education in North Carolina which could be called a school. 44 



39 Coates, A Task of Legal Education in North Carolina, 7. 

40 Raleigh Register and North Carolina Gazette, May 30, 1845. Hereinafter cited as Raleigh 
Register. 

« Raleigh Register, July 7, 1843. 

< 2 Guion Griff is Johnson, Ante-bellum North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 1937), 288. 

«" Raleigh Register, February 15. 1822. 

"Charles L. Coon, North Carolina Schools and Academies: 1790-1840 (Raleigh, 1915), xliv. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 279 

Taylor himself was the first Chief Justice of the North Carolina 
Supreme Court after its reorganization in 1818 ; he had studied 
law alone but had made such remarkable progress that he was 
licensed before coming of age. 45 Taylor taught throughout the 
1820's; 46 one of his most noted pupils was David L. Swain. 47 

One of the outstanding early schools was conducted by Leonard 
Henderson. In 1826 Henderson inserted a notice in the Raleigh 
Register that he had four offices for law students and would 
have a fifth ready in a short time. 48 For several years he ad- 
vertised his school, which was located near Williamsboro. 49 From 
1820 to 1828 Henderson was teaching law, first in his office, 
then in his school. 50 William Horn Battle and Richmond M. Pear- 
son, both of whom were destined to become well-known law 
teachers, were pupils of this early scholar. 51 

Richard T. Brumby, who was unable to attend court because 
of feeble health, decided to start a school in Lincoln County. 
Little is known about this man. From contemporary newspapers 
one learns that he and his brother comprised the faculty of his 
school; they had a large house and erected cabins which were 
comfortable, though small ; the curriculum included Latin, Greek, 
and mathematics. Brumby advertised that he had one law stu- 
dent but that he wanted more. He felt that he could devote more 
time to the school than could most instructors and that students 
would be able to proceed with greater ease than under most 
lawyers, for "it is a notorious fact, that practicing lawyers have 
neither time nor inclination to direct the studies of their stu- 
dents, and that they do not examine them as often as once a 
month. Under such circumstances, a young man must pursue his 
studies to great disadvantage. . . ." As to his qualifications, 
Brumby referred to "Judge Badger of Raleigh" and to "Major 
Henderson of Lincolnton." The notice appeared in the Raleigh 



45 Ashe and others (eds.). Biographical History of North Carolina, V, 403. 

46 Taylor died in 1829. One of his pupils, John Hill Wheeler, was licensed in 1827. See 
Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, V, 406, and VII, 473. 

47 Zebulon Baird Vance, "The Life and Character of Hon. David L. Swain," North Carolina 
University Magazine, I (May, 1878), 76. 

** Raleigh Register, March 3, 1826. 

49 See Raleigh Register, March 2, 1827, and March 4 and June 10, 1828. 

50 Archibald Henderson, North Carolina, The Old North State and the Nexo (Chicago, 
1941), II, 648. See Marshall De Lancey Haywood, "The Officers of the Court, 1819-1919," 
176 N. C. 800. Haywood says that William Robards of Williamsborouprh was associated with 
Henderson in conducting his school. None of Henderson's newspaper notices mention Robards, 
and no other information could be located as to the correctness of this assertion. 

51 Walter Clark, "The Supreme Court of North Carolina," The Green Bag, IV (October, 
1892). 463-464. 



280 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Register in December, 1829, and January and February, 1830. 52 
Archibald D. Murphey, noted for his work in the field of edu- 
cation, was one of the most popular lawyers under whom a 
young man could study. His first notice of an organized school, 
which appeared a few months before his death, stated that he 
had settled in Hillsboro and would receive a few law students. 53 
When one remembers how many matters of public concern in- 
terested Murphey, one may doubt that his law students received 
much attention! 

John L. Bailey, a law teacher from 1835 to 1861, 54 instructed 
students in his office in Elizabeth City before he opened a law 
school. 55 From Elizabeth City he moved to Hillsboro; 56 and in 
May, 1845, he announced that he would open a law school the 
first of July. 57 He and Frederick Nash, justice of the state Su- 
preme Court, later combined forces and conducted a lav/ school. 
They were evidently great believers in advertising; their notice 
appeared in one of the newspapers of Raleigh at the beginning 
of every session for several years. 58 In 1851 they wrote that 
young men would profit by being in Hillsboro at the beginning 
of the session so that classes could be formed. They insisted that 
promptness would be of benefit to the teachers and to the pupils. 59 
One of the instructors would be there nearly all the year and 
part of the time both would be in attendance. 60 After Nash's 
death, Bailey moved in 1859 to his farm in Black Mountain, 61 
where he and his son, William H. Bailey, conducted a school. 62 
A notice in the Raleigh Register said that they proposed to open 
a school in Buncombe County, on the north fork of the Swan- 



52 Raleigh Register, December 14, 1829-February 22, 1830. 

53 Star and North Carolina State Gazette (Raleigh), December 16, 1831. This school was 
of short duration because of Murphey's death in February, 1832. See William A. Graham, 
"Memoir of Hon. Archibald D. Murphey, Late a Judge of the Superior Court of North 
Carolina," The Papers of Archibald D. Murphey, I, xxxiv. 

51 Henderson, North Carolina, The Old North State and the New, II, 648. 

55 Coates, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV (June, 
1946), 322. 

D6 The exact date of Bailey's removal to Hillsboro could not be found. In 1835 he repre- 
sented Pasquotank County at the North Carolina constitutional convention. See Archibald 
Henderson, "John Bailey, Teacher of Law," News and Observer, June 17, 1928. The first 
indication of his residence in Hillsboro was the announcement of his law school in the 
Raleigh Register of May 30, 1845. The move was obviously some time between these dates. 

67 Raleigh Register, May 30, 1845. 

58 See, for example, Raleigh Register, January 1 and December 31, 1851; January 5, 
1853; June 28, 1854; and January 6, 1855. 

59 Students evidently were not always present at the beginning of the term. A notice 
that a school would begin on a certain date would often run in the newspaper for days after 
the opening date had passed. See, for example, the Raleigh Register, December 31, 1851- 
February 4, 1852, announcing a school to begin January 15, 1852; April 6, 1841-June 29, 1841, 
announcing a school to begin June 1, 1841. 

60 Raleigh Register, January 1, 1851. 

61 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, VI, 6-7. 

62 Henderson, "John Bailey, Teacher of Law," News and Observer, June 17, 1928. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 281 

nanoa River, to begin on March 1, 1859. 63 This school continued 
until it was interrupted by the Civil War; Bailey taught again 
after the war, however. 64 

Frederick Nash 65 was also an experienced teacher when he and 
Bailey opened their school. Nash and Hugh Waddell had an- 
nounced that they would open a school in Hillsboro on January 
1, 1842. They said that they deemed it "unnecessary to allude 
to the advantages to be derived from pursuing such studies in 
the seclusion of a quiet Village, nor to those benefits which 
spring from the association of minds engaged in the same pur- 
suits/' Their announcement stated that they would not open the 
school unless as many as eight students entered. 66 

Richmond M. Pearson and William Horn Battle were the two 
outstanding teachers of law during the years under consideration. 
Pearson's school at Mocksville opened soon after he was elected 
a judge of the superior court in 1836. 67 He later moved the school 
to Richmond Hill, where it was in operation until the 1870's. 68 
The classes were conducted in a secluded spot a few miles from 
Rockford; the nearest railroad was in High Point, forty miles 
away. 69 Francis D. Koonce, writing to Thomas Ruffin, said that 
he had been studying under Pearson for one session but he could 
not find board and lodging for the next term. He had applied 
at Chapel Hill also, but he had not been able to secure accommoda- 
tions. Having been unsuccessful in gaining living quarters at an 
institution, he applied to Ruffin, saying that he did not see any 
reason why Ruffin should mind one student. He referred Ruffin 
to "Judge P. with whom I have honor to be acquainted and upon 
the most friendly terms." 70 

The first law school to be affiliated with an institution was 
that of Judge William Horn Battle in Chapel Hill. Battle and 
James Iredell had taught in Raleigh in 1841. 71 They had stated in 



63 Raleigh Register, February 16, 1859. 

** Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, VI, 6-7. 

65 The Francis Nash Papers in the Department of Archives and History in Raleigh contain 
numerous letters to and from Frederick Nash. Letters giving advice to young lawyers, let> 
ters about the practice of law, letters about judicial activities are numerous; unfortunately, 
none of them throw any light on Nash's teaching activities. 

66 Raleigh Register, November 9, 1841. 

6T Henderson, North Carolina, The Old North State and tlie New, II, 34. 

68 Coates, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review. XXIV (June, 
1946), 323. 

69 Council S. Wooten, "A Famous Old Time North Carolina Law School," North Carolina 
Journal of Law, II (October, 1905), 465-466. 

70 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, III, 41-42. 

71 Johnson, Ante-bellum North Carolina, 288. 



280 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Register in December, 1829, and January and February, 1830. 52 
Archibald D. Murphey, noted for his work in the field of edu- 
cation, was one of the most popular lawyers under whom a 
young man could study. His first notice of an organized school, 
which appeared a few months before his death, stated that he 
had settled in Hillsboro and would receive a few law students. 53 
When one remembers how many matters of public concern in- 
terested Murphey, one may doubt that his law students received 
much attention! 

John L. Bailey, a law teacher from 1835 to 1861, 54 instructed 
students in his office in Elizabeth City before he opened a law 
school. 55 From Elizabeth City he moved to Hillsboro; 56 and in 
May, 1845, he announced that he would open a law school the 
first of July. 57 He and Frederick Nash, justice of the state Su- 
preme Court, later combined forces and conducted a lav/ school. 
They were evidently great believers in advertising ; their notice 
appeared in one of the newspapers of Raleigh at the beginning 
of every session for several years. 58 In 1851 they wrote that 
young men would profit by being in Hillsboro at the beginning 
of the session so that classes could be formed. They insisted that 
promptness would be of benefit to the teachers and to the pupils. 59 
One of the instructors would be there nearly all the year and 
part of the time both would be in attendance. 60 After Nash's 
death, Bailey moved in 1859 to his farm in Black Mountain, 61 
where he and his son, William H. Bailey, conducted a school. 62 
A notice in the Raleigh Register said that they proposed to open 
a school in Buncombe County, on the north fork of the Swan- 



52 Raleigh Register, December 14, 1829-February 22, 1830. 

53 Star and North Carolina State Gazette (Raleigh), December 16, 1831. This school was 
of short duration because of Murphey's death in February, 1832. See William A. Graham, 
"Memoir of Hon. Archibald D. Murphey, Late a Judge of the Superior Court of North 
Carolina," The Papers of Archibald D. Murphey, I, xxxiv. 

51 Henderson, North Carolina, The Old North State and the New, II, 648. 

55 Coates, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV (June, 
1946), 322. 

56 The exact date of Bailey's removal to Hillsboro could not be found. In 1835 he repre- 
sented Pasquotank County at the North Carolina constitutional convention. See Archibald 
Henderson, "John Bailey, Teacher of Law," News and Observer, June 17, 1928. The first 
indication of his residence in Hillsboro was the announcement of his law school in the 
Raleigh Register of May 30, 1845. The move was obviously some time between these dates. 

57 Raleigh Register, May 30, 1845. 

58 See, for example, Raleigh Register, January 1 and December 31, 1851; January 5, 
1853; June 28, 1854; and January 6, 1855. 

59 Students evidently were not always present at the beginning of the term. A notice 
that a school would begin on a certain date would often run in the newspaper for days after 
the opening date had passed. See, for example, the Raleigh Register, December 31, 1851- 
February 4, 1852, announcing a school to begin January 15, 1852; April 6, 1841-June 29, 1841, 
announcing a school to begin June 1, 1841. 

60 Raleigh Register, January 1, 1851. 

61 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, VI, 6-7. 

62 Henderson, "John Bailey, Teacher of Law," News and Observer, June 17, 1928. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 281 

nanoa River, to begin on March 1, 1859. 63 This school continued 
until it was interrupted by the Civil War; Bailey taught again 
after the war, however. 64 

Frederick Nash 65 was also an experienced teacher when he and 
Bailey opened their school. Nash and Hugh Waddell had an- 
nounced that they would open a school in Hillsboro on January 
1, 1842. They said that they deemed it "unnecessary to allude 
to the advantages to be derived from pursuing such studies in 
the seclusion of a quiet Village, nor to those benefits which 
spring from the association of minds engaged in the same pur- 
suits." Their announcement stated that they would not open the 
school unless as many as eight students entered. 66 

Richmond M. Pearson and William Horn Battle were the two 
outstanding teachers of law during the years under consideration. 
Pearson's school at Mocksville opened soon after he was elected 
a judge of the superior court in 1836. 67 He later moved the school 
to Richmond Hill, where it was in operation until the 1870's. 68 
The classes were conducted in a secluded spot a few miles from 
Rockford; the nearest railroad was in High Point, forty miles 
away. 69 Francis D. Koonce, writing to Thomas Ruffin, said that 
he had been studying under Pearson for one session but he could 
not find board and lodging for the next term. He had applied 
at Chapel Hill also, but he had not been able to secure accommoda- 
tions. Having been unsuccessful in gaining living quarters at an 
institution, he applied to Ruffin, saying that he did not see any 
reason why Ruffin should mind one student. He referred Ruffin 
to "Judge P. with whom I have honor to be acquainted and upon 
the most friendly terms." 70 

The first law school to be affiliated with an institution was 
that of Judge William Horn Battle in Chapel Hill. Battle and 
James Iredell had taught in Raleigh in 1841. 71 They had stated in 



63 Raleigh Register. February 16, 1859. 

•* Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, VI, 6-7. 

65 The Francis Nash Papers in the Department of Archives and History in Raleigh contain 
numerous letters to and from Frederick Nash. Letters giving advice to young lawyers, let- 
ters about the practice of law, letters about judicial activities are numerous; unfortunately, 
none of them throw any light on Nash's teaching activities. 

86 Raleigh Register, November 9, 1841. 

6T Henderson, North Carolina, The Old North State and tlie New, II, 34. 

68 Coates, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV (June, 
1946), 323. 

69 Council S. Wooten, "A Famous Old Time North Carolina Law School," North Carolina 
Journal of Law, II (October, 1905), 465-466. 

70 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, III, 41-42. 

71 Johnson, Ante-beUum North Carolina, 288. 



282 The North Carolina Historical Review 

the Raleigh paper that they would open a law school on June 1, 
1841, if as many as eight students enrolled. 72 Battle moved to 
Chapel Hill in 1843, and began teaching law in his office, a two- 
room building in his yard. 73 This school was scheduled to begin 
on July 15, 1843 ; and the newspaper notice proclaimed its loca- 
tion "at the University." 74 Not until 1845 did Battle become 
professor of law at North Carolina's institution of higher learn- 
ing. 

The idea of a law school at the University of the state was 
not new. At the commencement of 1824 James W. Bryan had 
spoken on the question of whether or not a professorship of law 
should be established, 75 and soon thereafter a law club was or- 
ganized. 76 Beginning in 1837 a course in national and constitu- 
tional law was offered to students in the second session of their 
senior year. David L. Swain taught the course, which was given 
even after the establishment of the law department. In 1845 the 
University of North Carolina catalogue contained the following 
statement : 

A department for the study of municipal law has been recently 
established and placed under the charge of the Professor of Law. 
This department contains two Classes, of which, the first, called 
the Independent Class, will consist of such Students of Law as 
have no connexion with any of the College Classes ; and the sec- 
ond, called the College Class, will consist of such irregular mem- 
bers of College as, with the permission of the Faculty, may be 
desirous of joining it. 

The catalogue advised that the complete course for the Independ- 
ent Class was two years ; that for the College Class, two and a 
half years. The degree of bachelor of law was conferred on stu- 
dents who had completed the course of studies and who "by their 
proficiency may be deemed to be entitled to it." 

In 1854 Samuel F. Phillips joined Battle as assistant professor 
of law. 77 During his five-year tenure, 78 Phillips took Battle's 



72 Raleigh Register, April 6, 1841-June 29, 1841. 

73 Coatea, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV (June, 
1946), 328. 

'* Raleiqh Register, July 7,. 1843. 

75 Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina (Raleigh, 1907), T, 2,96. 

76 Coatea, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV (June, 
1946), 326-327. 

77 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1837, 5, 12; 1845-1846, 15; 1846-1846. 16; 
1854-1855. 86. 

™ 1864-1869* See Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 186M860, 42. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 283 

place when he had to be at court. 79 Both men were well qualified 
to teach law, Battle having studied law for three years before 
applying for admission to the bar at a time when no particular 
time of study was required by the Supreme Court, 80 and Phillips 
having been one of Battle's pupils. 81 Battle had studied under 
Leonard Henderson, he had had practical experience at the bar 
and on the bench, 82 and he had served as reporter of the Supreme 
Court decisions. In 1840 he had been elected a judge of the 
superior court, and had later served on the Supreme Court 
bench. 83 Phillips, at the time of his appointment to the faculty 
of the University, was a practicing lawyer in Chapel Hill. 84 He 
had had teaching experience, though not in law, in the years 1845 
through 1848 when he taught a small class of boys who were 
preparing for college. 85 There is the possibility that he had assist- 
ed Battle before he was officially made a faculty member, 
though there is no record of this. 86 

Several students in the University school were from states 
other than North Carolina. Virginia, Mississippi, 87 Alabama, 88 
California, 89 Tennessee, Texas, 90 and Kentucky 91 had representa- 
tives in the independent and college classes. The number of stu- 
dents at the Chapel Hill school in this period was not large. The 
1847-1848 catalogue listed eleven; that for 1854-1855, twelve. 92 

The law schools in North Carolina were conducted with the 
same inefficient methods as those used in law office teaching. 
The studies were molded on much the same pattern as that used 
in private offices. Learning law was more a practical matter 
than a theoretical one. The teachers, unless they were retired, 
continued to practice law as their prime purpose in life, teaching 



79 Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, I, 550. 

80 Coates, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV (June, 
1946), 331-332. 

« Thomas Ruffin, "Early Days of the Law School. Reminiscences 1900-1910," North Carolina 
Law Review, XXIV (June, 1946), 414. 

88 Coates, "A Century of Lesal Education," North Carolina Law Review, XXIV (June, 
1946), 331-332. 

83 Battle, History of tJie University of North Carolina, I, 549-550. 

84 Ruffin, "Early Days of the Law School, Reminiscences," North Carolina Law Review, 
XXIV (June, 1946), 414. 

85 R. H. Battle, "Hon. Samuel Field Phillips, LL.D.," North Carolina Journal of Law, 
I (January, 1904), 24-25. 

86 Ruffin, "Early Days of the Law School, Reminiscences, " North Carolina, Law Review, 
XXIV (June, 1946), 414: 

87 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1847-1848, 9. 

88 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1849-1850, 15. 

89 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1S55-1856, 39. 

90 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1856-1857, 43. 
01 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1858-1859, 41. 

«> Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1847-1848, 9, and 1854-1866, 20, 



284 The North Carolina Historical Review 

on the side. However, the instructors, for the most part, were 
well qualified to present the law to their pupils. They had had 
experience in actual practice and though they had not all had 
the highest type of legal training, they did know how to teach 
a young man the basic principles of law and the way to begin and 
build a practice. The early schools had many defects. Books were 
not always available in sufficient quantities, the instructors 
were away a large portion of the time, and the terms began at 
irregular intervals; but the fact remains that the early law 
schools produced great lawyers. 

Though North Carolina could boast of several private law 
schools and a law school as a part of its state university, not all 
North Carolina law students studied in the state. From 1820 
until the school closed in 1832, seven North Carolina law stu- 
dents studied at Litchfield Law School in Connecticut. 93 This 
school was one of the best in the country; the complete course 
lasted fourteen months, eight in the first year and six in the sec- 
ond. 94 Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, which 
advertised its law department in the Raleigh Register, offered 
lectures for four months, with examinations and lectures in each 
class daily, and weekly moot courts. 95 Harvard University ad- 
vertised several times in the 1840's and 1850's. That institution 
stated that it gave a complete legal education for gentlemen in- 
tending to practice in any state. Its library contained books which 
enabled students to study their local law and procedure. Two 
moot courts were held weekly, and after the arguments one of 
the instructors delivered an opinion. The LL.B. degree was 
awarded to students who studied for three terms and to at- 
torneys who, having been admitted to the bar in a state where 
at least one year's study was required, had studied two terms at 
Harvard. Students could enter at any stage of their professional 
studies, at the beginning of either term, or in the middle or any 
other part of the term. 96 The Richmond Law School, which also 
advertised in Raleigh, stressed the fact that the "instruction of 
the School will be modified to accommodate Students from other 



93 A. J. Morrison, "Virginia and North Carolina at the Litchfield Law School," Tyler's 
Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, II (January, 1921), 157-158. 

04 John Allen Krout and Dixon Ryan Fox, The Completion of Independence (New York, 
1944), 283. 

05 Raleigh Register, November 18, 1834. 

00 See Raleigh Register, August 9, 1844; February 4 and March 18, 1845; August 17, 1859. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 285 

States." 97 Other distant law schools attended by North Carolina 
students included Yale 98 and the University of Virginia. 99 The 
out-of-state institutions emphasized again and again in their 
advertisements that they were adapted to train lawyers for prac- 
tice in states other than the ones in which they were situated. 
Most of these schools, especially Harvard and Yale, had reputa- 
tions which surpassed those of the North Carolina schools, and 
a few students attended out-of-state institutions because of this 
fact. 

A large majority of those studying for the legal profession, 
however, remained in their own state to study law. The value of 
learning the law of one's native state was a factor to be con- 
sidered. Kemp Plummer Battle consulted his father about going 
to Harvard for a year, but was advised to remain at home and 
diligently study North Carolina cases. 100 He felt that more North 
Carolina law could be learned at home than elsewhere, despite 
the insistence of out-of-state institutions that they could teach 
the law of any state. 

The expenses of a legal education varied from school to school. 
Richard T. Brumby charged $100 a year for instruction, the use 
of a law library, board, washing, and candles, with a requirement 
that $25 be paid in advance. 101 Henderson charged $225 a year 
for instruction and board, "exclusive of washing and can- 
dles " 102 No advance payment was required. 103 Nash and Wad- 
dell stated that the "usual fees for instruction will be required and 
that for preparing a Student to obtain a County Court license 
[fees?] will be demanded whether he remain long enough for 
that purpose or not." 104 At the Bailey and Nash school tuition 
was $100 for "the whole course of legal instruction. . . ," 105 
Iredell and Battle charged $100 per annum, or $10 per month 
for any period shorter than a year. This sum included the cost 



87 Raleigh Register, September 9, X845. 

98 For example, William N. H. Smith, later Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme 
Court, studied at Yale. See Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, 
VII, 429. 

08 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, II, 121-122, reveals 
that Wharton Jackson Green was one of the North Carolinians who attended law school at 
the University of Virginia. 

*°° Kemp Plummer Battle, Memories of an Old-Time Tar Heel, edited by William James 
Battle (Chapel Hill, 1945), 81. 

i°i Raleigh Register, December 14, 1829. 

102 Raleigh Register, March 3, 1826. 

103 Raleigh Register, March 4, 1828. 

104 Raleigh Register, November 9, 1841. 

105 Raleigh Register, January 1, 1851. 



286 The North Carolina Historical Review 

of instruction and the use of law libraries which the two gentle- 
men owned. 106 The cost at Battle's school for 1843 was $100 for 
a course of twelve months or more. The rate of $10 a month was 
charged for any period of time shorter than the full term. Battle 
added that no "extra charge will be made for those who may 
attend his instructions after completing a regular course." 107 
At the University the students in the Independent Class paid 
the professor $50 per session for the first two sessions and $25 
per session thereafter. Members of the College Class paid $25. 
The catalogue stated that the professor would give extra in- 
struction to the students during vacation, if they wished it, for 
no extra charge. It would be interesting to know how many stu- 
dents took advantage of this offer ! The professor of law received 
no salary from the University. 108 A few years after the organiza- 
tion of the school, the College Class tuition was raised to $35 
per session ; however, a student who entered and paid $100 was 
entitled to attend without further charge. 109 The University law 
school was not very different from a private school ; the professor 
practiced law for a living and merely supplemented his income 
with student fees. 110 To study law in the northern colleges was 
more expensive than studying at home. Harvard charged $299 
to $420 for tuition, room, board, fuel, and laundry; in fact, 
everything "exclusive of clothes and what is termed pocket 
money." 111 

It is readily noted that the tuition and other expenses were 
not uniform, but varied with the individuals who operated the 
schools. When it is remembered that rarely did a student study 
law more than two years, the fees seem reasonable. 

Nearly all law students lived in private homes. John Louis 
Taylor's notice said that board could be obtained within a few 
hundred yards of his office for $108 a year. It could be obtained 
at a house more distant from the school for $132; however, at 
the latter house none but law students would be received. 112 Nash 
and Bailey said that board could be had at the homes of good 



106 Raleigh Register, April 6, 1841. 
wt Raleigh Register, July 7, 1843. 

i 08 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1845-1846, 16. 
109 Catalogue of tlie University of North Carolina, 1858-1859, 42. 

"•Coates, "A Century of Legal Education," North Carolina, Law Rewe-u). XXIV (June, 
1M6), 330-331. 
«i Raleigh Register, March 18, 1845. 
ua jto.'«vfc Beoiater. February 14. 1822. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 287 

families in the neighborhood and in town upon reasonable 
terms. 113 The catalogues of the University listed the names of 
the students, their home towns, and their rooming places in 
Chapel Hill; a majority of them were listed as living at "Miss 
Hillyard's." Others had rooms at the homes of various towns- 
people. 114 The law students were under no University regula- 
tions, for the catalogue stated that the "Professor of Law and the 
members of the Independent Class will not be subject to any of 
the ordinary College regulations/' 115 

In the years from 1820 through 1860 no particular amount of 
time was required to be spent in pre-law study before one could 
gain admission to a law office or to a school to study for the 
legal profession. Some students had almost no education before 
beginning the study of law; others were graduates of the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina or other institutions of higher learn- 
ing. For example, David M. Furches was educated at Union 
Academy before he studied law ; 116 Nicholas Washington Woodf in 
attended neighborhood schools, and then he and his brother, 
Henry Grady Woodfin, were instructed in the classics by a 
lawyer preparatory to legal training ; 117 Frederick Phillips, Wil- 
liam Laurence Saunders, William Waightstill Avery, Peter Mal- 
lett Hale, John Wheeler Moore, Robert P. Dick, and Thomas 
Settle were among numerous graduates of the University who 
studied law after receiving their degrees; 118 Michael Hoke was 
educated at a military academy in Connecticut; Calvin Graves 
and John H. Dillard had had some college training; however, 
they had not graduated from an institution when they began 
their legal studies; 119 Louis D. Henry and Frederick Nash were 
Princeton graduates. 120 



113 Raleigh Register, December 31, 1851. 

Ui See Catalogue of the University of North Carolina for the years 1845 through 1860. Not 
all of the catalogues list the students and their rooming: places; enough of them do so to 
illustrate the types of rooms the students rented. "Miss Hillyard" was probably the Nancy 
S. Hilliard of the Eagle Hotel. Battle says that she was one of the favorite landladies of the 
period. See Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, I, 612, 673. 

115 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1845-1846, 16. 

lia Clark, "History of the Superior and Supreme Courts' of North Carolina," The North 
Carolina Booklet, XVIII (October, 1918), 99.. 

117 Ashe and others- (eds.)v -Biographical History of North Carolina, II, 481-482. 

118 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, JV, 366 K 382; VII, 9; 
V.in,.,186, 360; ClarK, ."History of the Superior and Supreme Courts of North Carolina^'ITus 
North Carolina Booklet, XVIII (October, 1918), 91-92. 

119 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, I, 309-310; "II, 109; 
Clark, "History of the Superior and Supreme Courts of North Carolina," The North Carolina 
Booklet, XVIII (October, 1918), 96. 

120 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, II, 163; John H. Bryan, 
"Memoir of Judge Nash," North Carolina. University Magaeme, IX (December, 1859), 258. 



288 The North Carolina Historical Review 

From the preceding examples one realizes that the amount and 
type of pre-law training which the lawyers of the nineteenth 
century received differed widely. Some were university gradu- 
ates ; some, military academy graduates ; many, graduates of no 
school. Anyone with a desire to study law, an average amount of 
intelligence, and a willingness to work could usually learn enough 
law within a year or two to pass the bar examination. Such a 
person did not have to attend a college or preparatory school for 
any definite length of time. Whenever he felt that he could com- 
prehend the law, a young man could begin the study for his 
chosen profession. 

Not only was no particular length of time for study required, 
but there were no prerequisite courses. The notices of law schools 
did not mention any requirements for admission ; the University 
catalogue contained no requirements for students desiring to 
enter the law department. 121 Students who decided to enter Har- 
vard had to meet its admission requirements which consisted of 
testimonials of good moral character and a bond with a Massa- 
chusetts surety or a deposit with the University to insure pay- 
ment. 122 It is obvious that any pre-legal program, such as exists 
today, was uncommon if not unknown. Anyone who felt that he 
could learn enough law to pass the bar examination could study 
and eventually become a member of the legal profession. 

After the student entered a law school, he did not find the 
instruction radically different from what he would have found 
in a law office. Taylor offered frequent examinations and con- 
versations on legal and literary topics, the use of an extensive law 
library, and practice in drawing pleadings. He advertised that 
he would lecture on the common and statute law of the state and 
show how the common law had been modified in North Caro- 
lina. 123 Leonard Henderson did not give formal lectures, but 
he did explain the law when requested to do so. He conducted 
frequent examinations, and held conversations "on law and topics 
connected therewith occasionally, most usually at table after 
meals." In a later notice he said that he would "indulge in and 



i2i Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1845-1860. 
*» Raleigh Register, March 18, 1845. 
w Raleigh Register, February 15, 1822. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 289 

invite free discussion and interchange of opinion upon legal 
subjects." 124 One of his students wrote: 

To the students who attended the law school which he estab- 
lished after he became a Judge of the supreme court, he was al- 
ways kind, accessible and communicative. He did not deliver 
regular lectures, nor appoint stated hours for recitation, but 
directed the studies of his pupils, urged them to apply to him 
at all times for a solution of their difficulties, and was never bet- 
ter satisfied with them than when, by their frequent application 
to him for assistance, they showed that they were studying with 
diligence and attention. 125 

Brumby did not deliver formal lectures ; he proposed to point 
out the passages which should be read, examine the young men 
frequently, and converse with them on changes made in the com- 
mon law by the North Carolina constitution, statutes, and Su- 
preme Court decisions. His library contained a good selection of 
elementary law books, which he offered as an inducement to 
prospective students. 126 John L. Bailey, in his lectures, clearly 
enunciated legal principles. He had reverence for the law and 
contempt for the pettifogging lawyer. 127 Battle and Iredell an- 
nounced the "most approved course of Studies . . . and oral and 
written instruction . . . showing the alteration of the Law as 
laid down by Blackstone. . . . The Students will be required to 
undergo frequent and stated examinations. . . ." 128 Nash and 
Waddell gave monthly examinations and written or oral in- 
structions when needed. 129 

It is evident that the schools were run according to the same 
general pattern. The lack of formality is particularly striking. 
The student had to learn on his own, with the aid of a few scat- 
tered comments by his tutor; but he had to undergo frequent 
examinations. The system seems a bit amazing to a student of 
today, who relies to a large extent on the lectures of the professor 
and hopes that the examinations will be few and far between. 

Pearson's and Battle's were the most successful of all of the 
schools of this period. Between them there was sharp, but whole- 



u* Raleigh Register, March 3, 1826; March 4, 1828. 

125 William H. Battle, "Memoir of Leonard Henderson, Late Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of North Carolina," North Carolina University Magazine, IX (November, 1859), 200. 

126 Raleigh Register, December 14, 1829. 

m Henderson, "John Bailey, Teacher of Law," News and Observer, June 17, 1928. 

128 Raleigh Register, April 6, 1841. 

129 Raleigh Register, November 9, 1841. 



290 The North Carolina Historical Review 

some, competition. Both sought to lay deep foundations; the 
students were encouraged to read, think, discuss, and digest .the 
law. 130 Judge Pearson lectured for a two-hour period about twice 
a week. 131 He never wrote his lectures, which varied little from 
year to year, but they were preserved by his students. Pearson's 
idea was that a student should try to master each great subject 
of law by looking at it from various points of view. His aim 
was to train his students to be able to meet any question, no 
matter how suddenly it arose. 132 Pearson's was a popular and 
profitable private school; he taught over 1,000 students during 
the years that he conducted classes. 133 Pearson would discuss a 
legal topic on any occasion ; he would talk law "at the table, on 
the path in the woods as they went to a neighbor's house, at the 
fishing place on the river, and in the Summer afternoon as they 
sat beneath the shades of the old oaks on the hill or down by the 
spring." 134 

Lectures were held at more regular times at the University 
than in the private schools. The Independent Class had recita- 
tions three times each week. The College Class met only once 
a week, and the classes were arranged so as not to interfere with 
any of the ordinary college studies. 135 Battle had to be away about 
half of the time ; in his absence, Phillips took charge. The pro- 
fessor asked questions on the prescribed subjects in the text- 
books, and gave lectures on the common law, with reference to 
legislative and judicial modifications. Questions and answers 
proved to be more efficacious than lectures in that the students 
who had been trained under the former method were the most 
successful on the bar examination. 136 

Moot courts were sometimes held as part of the educational 
program. The University catalogue stated : 

A Moot Court will be held occasionally by the Professor for 
the discussion by the Students, of such legal questions as he may 
propose. The Students will also be required from time to time to 

130 "The North Carolina Bar," North Carolina Journal of Law, I (January, 1904), 1-2. 
i3i Wooten, "A Famous Old Time North Carolina Law School," North Carolina Journal of 
Law, II (October, 1905), 465-466. 

132 Richmond M. Pearson, The Law Lectures of the Late Chief Justice Richmond M. 
Pearson . . . , compiled by Benjamin F. Long: (Raleigh, 1879), 3, 5. 

133 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, V, 308-309. See also 
Archibald Henderson, "Some Famous Institutions Passed Out In State's Early History," 
News and Observer, July 1, 1928. 

134 Ashe and others (eds.), Biographical History of North Carolina, V, 308-309. 
13R Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1845-1846, 16. 

138 Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, I, 664-665. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 291 

draw pleadings and other legal instruments and be instructed in 
the practice of the Courts. 137 

Though moot courts were offered, they were not held often. 1 '' 8 
In Hillsboro, Nash and Waddell planned to teach the practice 
in the state courts by the use of moot courts. 139 Nash and Bailey, 
in their notice on December 31, 1851, announced that a "Moot- 
Court will be holden once in each week." 140 In Raleigh Battle and 
Iredell stated that "when they [the students] shall have become 
sufficiently advanced, it is proposed that they shall have a Moot 
Court, where they may argue legal questions, and be made ac- 
quainted with the forms of Pleading and Practice in the Courts 
of this State." 141 

No matter where a boy studied law, he read Blackstone, Kent, 
Cruise, Chitty and "old treatises which in the quaint and curious 
language of earlier times taxed . . . [his] intellectual ca- 
pacity. . . ," 142 In 1822 Chief Justice Taylor inserted the following 
statement in the Raleigh Register: 

It is recommended to Students of more than six months standing 
to furnish themselves with a set of Blackstone's Commentaries, 
for the purpose of making such annotations, indicative of the 
alteration of the Law, as may be suggested in lecturing, or in 
conversation on legal topics, and will be permanently useful 
to them. 143 

In the early nineteenth century no published curriculum for 
a law school in North Carolina was in existence. John B. White, 
writing to Thomas Ruffin in 1842, said that students often asked 
him what to read in preparation for the legal profession. He 
sometimes referred them to the printed courses at New Haven 
and Cambridge, but he felt that those were more extensive than 
was necessary for county court practice in North Carolina. 144 

The first published curriculum for a law school in North Caro- 
lina was that of the University law department in 1845. 145 The 
catalogue provided that "Blackstone's Commentaries, Kent's Com- 



137 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1845-1846, 16. 

138 Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, I, 664-665. 

139 Raleigh Register, November 9, 1841. 

140 Raleigh Register, December 31, 1851. 

141 Raleigh Register, April 6, 1841. 

142 "Legal Education," North Carolina Journal of Law, I (May, 1904), 222. 

143 Raleigh Register, August 2, 1822. 

144 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 210-211. 

145 Albert Coates, "The Task of Legal Education in the South," American Bar Association 
Journal, XVI (July, 1930), 464. 



292 The North Carolina Historical Review 

mentaries, Stephen on Pleading, Chitty on Pleading, Greenleaf 
on Evidence, Chitty on Contracts, Cruise's Digest of Real Prop- 
erty, and Williams on Executors, together with Lectures . . ." on 
state laws, and the Supreme Court decisions would be studied. 146 
In 1854 the curriculum was changed so as to include Fearne on 
Remainders, Iredell on Executors, Smith on Contracts, Selwyn's 
Nisi Prius, Adams' Doctrine of Equity, plus Blackstone, Cruise, 
Stephen, Chitty's Pleading, and Greenleaf from the original 
course. 147 

The first time the Supreme Court — this body gave the bar 
examination — set up any requirements as to courses was in 1849. 
The court issued a general order at the December term, which 
reads : 

The Judges of the Supreme Court will hereafter require that 
applicants for license shall have gone through the following 
courses of reading : 

FOR THE COUNTY COURTS. 

Blackstone's Commentaries, 4 vols. — 2d volume particularly. 
Coke on Littleton, or Cruise's Digest. 
Fearne on Remainder and Executory Devises. 
Saunders on Uses and Trusts. 
Roper on Legacies, or Toller on Executors. 
Revised Statutes, chapter 37, Deeds and Conveyances; 38, 
Descents; 121, Widows; 122, Wills and Testaments. 

FOR THE SUPERIOR COURTS. 
Third book of Blackstone. 
First volume of Chitty's Pleadings. 
Stephen on Pleading. 
Fonblanque's Equity. 
Newland or Powell on Contracts. 
Mitford or Cooper, Equity Pleading. 
Fourth book of Blackstone. 
First volume Phillips, or Starkie on Evidence. 
Revised Statutes, chapter 31, Courts, County and Superior; 
34, Crimes and Punishments; 63, Lands of Deceased Debtors. 
Selwyn's Nisi Prius. 1 ** 

In 1850 the court made a change in its order from Fonblanque 
to Adams' Equity for students studying for a superior court 
license. 149 



146 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1845-1846, 16. 

147 Catalogue of the University of North Carolina, 1854-1855, 36. 
348 "General Order at December Term, 1849," 32 N. C. 437 (1849), 
149 "General Order," 33 N. C. 452 (1850). 



Legal Education in North Carolina 293 

The Supreme Court study was directed to real estate law in 
the preparation for a county court license, because land titles 
had not been settled and much litigation involved real property. 
The action of ejectment, in which a knowledge of real estate law 
was vital, was begun in the county courts. 150 

The North Carolina legislature left the prescription of courses 
and the time of study to the courts. Even after the Supreme 
Court laid down its regulations, the students studied without 
much supervision; and they continued to read the standard and 
well-known legal texts. From 1819 to 1869 the bar examination 
was given in two parts, with the requirement that a year elapse 
between the granting of the county court and superior court 
licenses. 151 At no time during this early period was much stress 
placed on particular courses. The students strove to learn enough 
law and to express themselves fluently enough in legal language 
to convince the judges of the Supreme Court that they were 
qualified to practice law. 

If letters written by the industrious young men can be taken 
at face value, law students devoted long hours to the study of 
the standard texts. Thomas Ruffin, Jr., wrote to his father in 1846 
that he had finished reading the second volume of Blackstone 
for the tenth time. He said he had expected to make a great show 
on an examination given by his brother William but that he had 
soon become Convinced that he had not proceeded far. He added 
that he had considered joining an expedition to Oregon, but, not 
being sure his father would approve, he had begun reading the 
third volume of Blackstone. 152 James M. Williamson, in a letter 
to Ruffin, stated that he had waded through most of Coke on 
Littleton for the second time. Such a mass of learning was con- 
tained in the books that he did not believe he would ever master 
it, but he expected the third reading to be especially profitable. 153 
In 1831 William K. Ruffin wrote that his progress in Blackstone 
had been so slow that he was discouraged ; after he had read an 



150 See "The North Carolina Bar," North Carolina Journal of Law, I (January, 1904), 2. 

151 Chief Justice Walter Clark, in giving the history of these requirements, in In re Appli- 
cants for License, 143 N. C. 19 (1906), stated that from 1819 to 1869 two years were required 
to be spent in study. This dictum is misleading. The court required a period of a year to 
elapse between the granting of the county court license and the superior court license; 
there was, however, neither rule nor law which said that a student should spend a year in 
study before applying for a county court license, or that he should spend the intervening 
year in study. See Albert Coates, "Standards of the Bar," North Carolina Laiv Review, VI 
(December, 1927), 39, discussing educational requirements of this period. 

152 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 239-240. 
163 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 114-115. 



294 The North Carolina Historical Review 

hour, a short conversation on trivial matters would wipe legal 
principles out of his mind. A few days later he wrote that he 
had forgotten so much of the material he had been over that he 
shuddered when he thought of plodding through the volumes 
ahead of him. He planned to go over Blackstone again, and 
"perhaps I may then request the favour of some explanations 
upon parts that I do not thoroughly comprehend." 154 

Kemp P. Battle, who studied law while he was a tutor of 
mathematics at the University of North Carolina, reported that 
he knew second Blackstone so well that he could give every 
principle in the book in the order of its occurrence. 155 

The North Carolina University Magazine, commenting on the 
resignation of one of its editors, said: 

Our very pleasant and highly useful associate, Mr. WM. 
HENRY SPENCER of Hyde, has, of necessity, resigned to his 
class-mates his trust as an Editor of the University Magazine. 
Having entered one of Judge Battle's Law classes, he thought he 
could not, in justice to himself, to his class in the University and 
in the Law, and especially to the study of this science, which is 
a jealous one, remain longer in the corps. However much we re- 
gret his resignation, we know his reason to be a good one; for 
the Law is a science which exercises the highest powers of mind, 
and which, as Mr. Justice Blackstone has said, "employs in its 
theory the noblest faculties of the soul, and exerts in its practice 
the cardinal virtues of the heart," and hence, should have the 
student's undivided attention. SPENCER, we bid you God-speed 
in your undertaking. 156 

To get the most from his studies, a law student had to borrow 
or buy books to read. For those who could afford to buy them, 
books were easily accessible. Turner and Hughes of Raleigh 
frequently advertised a large number of law books in their store. 
In 1838 they advertised that they had never "had it in their 
power to offer to the public so complete a LAW LIBRARY as 
they . . ." had at that time. 157 Joseph Gales and Son were frequent 
advertisers of legal treatises. 158 Now and then the library of a 
deceased lawyer would be sold by the executor or administrator 
of his estate. For example, James F. Taylor's estate contained 



iB6 "Editorial Table," North Carolina University Magazine, II (November, 1853), 449-450. 

™~ Raleiqh Register, April 30, 1838. 

158 See Raleigh Register, January 2, 1824; July 26. 1830; July 9, 1833. 

154 Hamilton, The Papers of Thomas Ruffin, II, 36-37; 40-41. 

155 Battle, Memories of an Old-Time Tar Heel, 81. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 295 

a good collection of law books. The administrator's notice re- 
quested friends of the deceased to return any borrowed books 
without delay. 159 Gavin Hogg, who because of ill health had had 
to give up the practice of law, offered over 400 books at a fifteen 
per cent discount under an evaluation of Turner and Hughes or 
any other bookseller. He announced that if the entire library 
was not sold at private sale, a public auction would be held on 
November 4, 1834. 160 

Bailey and Nash had textbooks at their school. The students 
could buy them for prices charged by E. J. Hale and Son of 
Fayetteville. 161 

For students who were having a difficult time remembering 
the details of Blackstone, Turner and Hughes offered the "Tree 
of Legal Knowledge," designed to assist young men in the study 
of law. The student without this aid would "always grope in 
the dark, and ultimately find his labors useless." The purpose 
of the work was to impress on the mind the divisions and sub- 
divisions of Blackstone. According to the advertisement the de- 
scription of the contents was inadequate to convey any just con- 
ception of the work. The "Tree of Legal Knowledge" was pre- 
pared by a gentleman of the North Carolina bar. The subscribers 
had incurred great expense in procuring the engravings; and, 
with reluctance, they "send forth a Subscription paper — but in 
the present instance, it is unavoidable. — The expense, already 
incurred, renders it necessary that only so many copies should 
be struck off as may be called for by Subscribers." A copy on 
rollers, like a large map, cost $8.00; a copy similar to an atlas, 
$6.00; on sheets, consisting of seven plates, $5.00. The publica- 
tion would also be useful to the practitioner "in consolidating his 
learning and forming an instructive and ornamental appendage 
to an Office." 162 

A few weeks after the advertisement first appeared, the Ral- 
eigh Register carried testimonials concerning the "Tree of Legal 
Knowledge." Robert Strange had examined it carefully and had 
found the design ingenious, and "as a North Carolinian, I am 
proud of this beautiful effort of genius." "The Hon. H. Clay" 



159 Raleigh Register, December 16, 1828. 
"° Raleigh Register, September 30, 1834. 
181 Raleigh Register, December 31, 1851. 
162 Raleigh Register, May 21, 1838. 



296 The North Carolina Historical Review 

wrote that it displayed "great ingenuity and labor, and ... 1 
think it will be of material assistance to the diligent student." 
Daniel Webster wrote that it was ingenious and that the design 
was good, but he thought more attention should have been given 
to the opinions of "Mr. Hitchcock and Chief Justice Daggett." 103 
One wonders how any student could have resisted buying the 
"Tree of Legal Knowledge !" 

Toward the middle of the nineteenth century, books became 
more and more important to the law student, for law schools 
began emphasizing theory rather than practice. Battle and Pear- 
son, for example, held lectures at stated times and emphasized 
basic principles of law. The well-read student was better able 
to comprehend legal theories than was one who had merely wit- 
nessed courtroom scenes and practicing lawyers. The type of 
training which was offered in the middle of the century taught 
accurate principles and fastened the history of law in the minds 
of the students. The president of the North Carolina Bar Asso- 
ciation wrote in 1908, referring to this kind of training, that 
the student who had labored through Blackstone, Coke, and the 
others "could not for his life get up the proper process for the 
recovery of a horse, but therein we builded better than being 
master of such an accomplishment." 164 That very statement 
shows the changed emphasis which had taken place in legal edu- 
cation from 1820 to 1860. During the earlier years of the period, 
the student served an apprenticeship and learned much of the 
practical side of the law. Gradually the emphasis shifted. By 
1860 the schools of law, both private and state supported, began 
to stress the theoretical side of the legal profession. Less atten- 
tion was paid to the routine aspects of practice. The student 
was expected to dig out for himself the procedure for recovering 
a horse. He was thoroughly soaked in the theory and the history 
of law; the teachers presumed that he could secure assistance 
from an older lawyer when he had to face a client. The debate 
as to the respective virtues of the two systems continues today. 

The Raleigh Register, commenting on an extract from the 
Southern Review, which recommended that at least four years 



193 Raleigh Register, June 18, 1838. Samuel Hitchcock and David Daggett were law teachers 
at New Haven. See Krout and Fox, The Completion of Independence, 284. 

104 Clement Manly, "Annual Address of the President," North Carolina Bar Association 
Reports, 1906, 23. 



Legal Education in North Carolina 297 

of study be required before a student be allowed to take the bar 
examination, urged the legislature to do something about the 
requirements for legal education in North Carolina. The argu- 
ment was that in less time than four years the student did not 
learn the necessity for future study. 165 

It is clearly noted that the early schools of law had little sys- 
tem as to curriculum or lecture periods. The individual instruc- 
tors discussed the law with the students when they had time and 
were not in court; they gave frequent examinations, but few 
formal lectures. The students read and studied law by themselves 
for the most part. Those students who did not attend a school 
read law alone or studied with an experienced lawyer as their 
preceptor. These young men were left alone a great deal of the 
time. They read the lawyer's books, listened to him try cases in 
court, and learned from him the correct way to prepare legal 
papers. The relationship between the law teacher and his stu- 
dents was an intimate one. The lawyer taught only a few students 
at a time ; thus the pupil and teacher grew to know one another 
and to become fast friends. 

The advantage of the school, after its early years, over the 
office was that the student gained the value of systematic instruc- 
tion. Assigned readings and connected lectures were used as an 
introduction to the law as a body of knowledge. The emphasis 
had shifted from the practical aspects of the law to principles 
and theories. 166 Students spent hours reading the early English 
writers and the few American legal scholars ; they learned a great 
deal from the men under whom they studied ; they gained a love 
for the law and a respect for the legal set-up in the state ; many 
of them became great lawyers despite the defects in the methods 
of study employed. After the student studied for a while, he was 
ready for the final step in his preparation for a career as an 
attorney and counsellor at law — the bar examination. 



MB Raleigh Register, July 27, 1829. 

166 Coates, A Task of Legal Education in North Carolina, 14-15. 



DAVID CROCKETT AND NORTH CAROLINA 
By James Atkins Shackford 

. . . the politics of the frontier was the politics of backwoodsmen, and if a 
type of the age is needed ... it may well be David Crockett, whose autobio- 
graphy is one of the prime human documents for the American epic yet to 
be written. 

— Charles and Mary Beard, Rise of American Civilization. 

David Crockett, pioneer and hunter of the backwoods; justice 
of the peace, court referee, and village commissioner along the 
fringe of early western settlements; state legislator, then Con- 
gressman, in the formative years of our nation ; and finally na- 
tional hero who lost his life in the American Thermopylae of the 
Alamo — here was a man in whom North Carolina should have a 
particular and lasting interest. For the Crocketts were North 
Carolinians long before they migrated to territory later to be- 
come Tennessee. David was to marry a North Carolinian and 
to come back from time to time to visit in the state and once 
to participate in a famous bit of North Carolina history. Finally, 
his influence was to deprive the state of one of its illustrious 
early families, who moved to Tennessee to live near him. 

Tennessee has claimed Crockett for his life in that state. 
Texas has proclaimed him for his death there. But North Caro- 
lina, home of his ancestors and, literally, the land of his nativity, 
has never seemed to take much interest in him, judging by the 
scarcity of published comment by North Carolinians about him. 
In himself, as classic representative of an important type in the 
formation of our nation, and in his own account of his life in his 
autobiography of 1834 (a book which has become a classic not 
only of American literature but also of American history) , he is 
an important national figure. This article calls attention to some 
of the state's claims upon him and aims at finally establishing, 
if possible, his connection with the Robert B. Vance-Sam Carson 
duel of November 6, 1827, an episode which to date has occupied, 
with reference to Crockett, only the dubious position of tenuous 
legend. 

It would be tedious here to trace the genealogical discussions 
concerning David's ancestry. Suffice it to say that seemingly 



David Crockett and North Carolina 299 

conclusive evidence establishes as his grandfather an eighteenth- 
century North Carolinian likewise named David Crockett. Back of 
him the Crocketts had migrated to this country from Ireland 
about 1709, had dwelt a while at New Rochelle, New York, had 
passed on to Pennsylvania and then to Virginia, and sometime 
around or shortly after mid-century had arrived in North Caro- 
lina. Thus we find in the Lincoln County Courthouse, at Lincoln- 
ton, North Carolina, records of land transactions by grandfather 
David as early as 1771, and similar records for his oldest son 
(our David's Uncle William), running from 1771 to 1794, two 
of which are r 1 

Deed, Thomas Leates to William Crockett, 160 acres of land, 
6 March 1771. 

Deed, 18 August 1794, William Crockett Convy. Robt. Weir 110 
acres on King's Creek convy to him by Isaac Kimball. 

The third son of grandfather David was John Crockett, father 
of the David of this paper. John was only twenty-three when 
grandfather David migrated with his family across the Ap- 
palachians, a fact which doubtless explains why no court records 
exist concerning John until after the move. It must be remem- 
bered, however, that until 1789 North Carolina extended to the 
Mississippi River and that all of the early "Tennessee" records 
of John prior to that date were literally North Carolina records. 
(David himself, born in 1786, was thus a native of North Caro- 
lina, though the spot of his birth is now in, and he is now claimed 
by, Tennessee.) It is certain, however, that John Crockett was 
present at and participated in the battle of King's Mountain, 2 
though the Roster of Soldiers from North Carolina in the Ameri- 
can Revolution appears to be in error in placing him with the 
militia from Lincoln County, N. C, at the time (1780) . 3 By 
then John was in Washington County (North Carolina — now 
Tennessee) . He served as a frontier ranger during the Revolu- 



1 Mrs. J. Stewart French and Zella Armstrong, The Crockett Family and Connectina Lines, 
Notable Southern Families Series, V. (Bristol, Tenn.: Kins: Printing Co., 1928), 372, 543-544, 
quoting from Lincoln County (N. C.) deeds. W. L. Sherrill, in Annals of Lincoln County, 
N. C. (Charlotte: Observer Printing House, 1937), 15, 115, says David's autobiography states 
that he was born in Lincoln County, and cites one of these 1771 documents concerning 
David's grandfather as proof! David does not so state in his autobiography, nor was he born 
until 1786. 

3 Louise Wilson Reynolds, "The Pioneer Crockett Family in Tennessee," The Daughters of 
the American Revolution Magazine, LV (April, 1921), 188. 

8 "John Crockett, father of Davy Crockett, was with the militia from Lincoln Co.," Bays 
tbfa Roster, published by the North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution in 1932. 
See p. 488. 



300 The North Carolina Historical Review 

tion, was probably away from home when grandfather David 
and wife were murdered by Indians in 1777, but returned in 
time to join the Washington County forces and to come to King's 
Mountain in October, 1780. 4 For his Revolutionary War services 
he was given on April 17, 1786, two land grants, numbers 113 
and 486, of 640 acres each in Davidson County. 5 The earliest 
record this writer has located, one for February 28, 1778, places 
him by that time already in Washington County. Thereafter the 
records are fairly numerous, showing him to be a constable there 
until Greene County was created from Washington in 1783, and 
subsequently he can be followed as constable of Greene County 
until his remove about 1794 to Jefferson County. Tennessee had 
by then been established from North Carolina, and the immediate 
connections of father John with the latter state had terminated. 

Before leaving the pre-David records, it should be remarked 
that the grandfather, David Crockett, and his oldest son William 
were both, after their remove over the mountains, signers in the 
summer of 1776 of the Watauga petition to the state of North 
Carolina for annexation of the transmontane settlements, 7 and 
further that two sisters of David's mother (Rebecca Hawkins) 
married men of North Carolina fame: Jane Hawkins married 
Richard Campbell, commander at King's Mountain; and Sarah 
Hawkins married John Sevier, also of King's Mountain fame as 
well as first governor of the new state of Tennessee. 8 

Previous biographies of David Crockett are all inaccurate, 
including even that in the Congressional Directory, and perhaps 
a brief, accurate summary of his life may well be worth-while 
here. Born on August 17, 1786, in a backwoods log cabin at 
Strong Springs, on the north bank of Big Limestone Creek in 
Greene County, twelve miles east of the present Greeneville, 
Tennessee, he remained in the East Tennessee mountains until 
he was twenty-five. On August 14, 1806, he married Polly Fin- 



* Reynolds, "The Pioneer Crockett Family in Tennessee," 188. 

5 North Carolina Land Grants for Revolutionary Services, Book G, No. 7, 58, State Land 
Office, Nashville, Tennessee. 

6 Washington County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1778-1798, I, 46. (Transcripts 
in Tennessee State Library, Nashville.) 

7 . See W. L. Saunders, Colonial Records of North Carolina, (10 vols. Raleigh, Goldsboro, 
etc., 1886-1898), X. 708-711, for the petition and its signers, including these. Records cited 
earlier for William in Lincoln County were dated as late as 1794, but he had moved across the 
mountains not later than 1776, perhaps earlier, though he retained land in Lincoln County 
and returned from time to time to transact business and finally to close out his interests there. 

8 A partial Hawkins genealogy may be found in the library of the University of Texas; the 
same, with a few additions, in French and Armstrong-, The Crockett Family and Connecting 
Lines. 379-381. See also Reynolds, "The Pioneer Crockett Family in Tennessee," 186-191. 



:i™»r.: m -.'.Sirs 




David Crockett- 



Gentleman From The Cane 

(1786-1836) 



(FROM A LITHOGRAPH OWNED BY THE TENNESSEE STATE LIBRARY, NASH- 
VILLE. THE ORIGINAL PORTRAIT WAS PAINTED ABOUT 1834 BY S. S. OSGOOD, 
WHO IN THAT YEAR ALSO MADE AND COPYRIGHTED THE LITHOGRAPH OF 
HIS PAINTING FROM WHICH THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS REPRODUCED. IT IS 
PROBABLY THE MOST AUTHENTIC OF SOME HALF DOZEN LIKENESSES OF 
DAVID WHICH YET SURVIVE.) 



David Crockett and North Carolina 301 

ley, thereafter trying to farm unproductive rented land, but 
scarcely subsisting. The pioneer dream of better lands in the 
wilderness sent him west in the late fall of 1811 and, packing 
their belongings on two horses, they crossed the Cumberland 
Mountains to settle on Mulberry Creek, Lincoln County, in 
Middle Tennessee, not far north of the present Alabama line. 
In 1813-1815 he took part in the Creek Indian War, rising from 
private to fourth sergeant; and after the war, in 1815, he was 
elected lieutenant of the peace-time militia of Lincoln County. 
Some months following his return from war, his first wife 
died, and about the middle of 1816 he remarried. The fam- 
ily soon moved farther west to territory recently purchased 
from the Chickasaw Indians and settled in wilds which were to 
become Lawrence County. Here David was elected a lieutenant 
colonel of militia, was made justice of the peace and town com- 
missioner, was appointed court referee, and was placed more than 
once on juries-of-view to mark out and build the first roads in 
the backwoods. Here too he was first elected to the state legis- 
lature for the term of 1821-22. But while attending he lost most 
of his property in a flood and, on adjournment of the legislature, 
the Crocketts again led the migration west, this time to Carroll 
County, just short of the Mississippi River, Here he was re- 
elected to the legislature, ran and was defeated for Congress, 
then ran and was elected in August, 1827, and served continu- 
ously, except for the session of 1831-33, until his final defeat 
in 1835. 

David's constituents in West Tennessee were, like himself, 
quite poor, many of them being squatters on the public lands. 
The greatest struggle of his political career was his attempt to 
secure these lands as a gift to those who had settled on them, 
an attempt representing the beginning of what was to become 
the public-lands policy in the homestead acts, years later. But 
in his battle David ran head-on into the aims of the state political 
machine, and those of Andrew Jackson — which contemplated 
the gift of these lands to the state for other purposes (education) . 
Against such odds he naively aligned himself with powerful 
Eastern and Southern forces which used his courage as a weapon 
with which to fight Jackson but which never delivered sufficient 



302 The North Carolina Historical Review 

promised votes to secure passage of the bill nearest to his heart. 
(David's eldest son, John Wesley, who followed his father to 
Congress in 1837, did secure its passage in a modified form in 
mid-February, 1841.) Incurring Jackson's wrath, David was 
defeated for re-election in 1835, and moved that fall to Texas, 
hoping, as his last letter reveals, to move his family there in 
one more trek west, to become a significant figure in that state, 
and to achieve that success for which he had struggled so long 
and so unsuccessfully. In order to acquire the vote and to become 
eligible for political office there, he subscribed to the Texas oath 
of allegiance early in 1836, and in pursuance of obligations con- 
tingent thereto, he travelled to the Alamo. Here 150 effective 
fighting men were surrounded by some 5,000 troops of Gen- 
eral Santa Anna and, on March 6, 1836, were destroyed to the 
last man in one of the most famous battles of American history. 
Crockett before his death had become a national figure in both 
history and legend, and the circumstances of that death immortal- 
ized him in both realms. Literature about him has been perennial 
from that day to this, nor should this sketch omit mentioning 
that his own autobiography is one of the most authenic existing 
accounts of pioneer life along the frontier. The main episode of 
this paper deals with the period succeeding his first election to 
Congress in 1827, but it must be introduced by way of his second 
marriage, which had occurred earlier. 

He wed "a widow lady whose husband had been killed in the 
war," he tells us in chapter IX of his autobiography, 9 this 
"widow lady" being Elizabeth Patton, of Western North Caro- 
lina; and this marriage led him back to this state. About the 
marriage itself a great number of erroneous statements have 
been made. Investigation, including correspondence with Ashley 
W. Crockett, only living grandson of David (and Elizabeth Pat- 
ton), ninety at the time of our last correspondence in the spring 
of 1948, suggests that some of the mistakes may have been in- 
tentional. For reasons not requiring speculation here, most of 
the errors involve a too-early date for this marriage. The in- 



The authentic autobiography which is always meant when herein referred to is : A Nar- 
rative of the Life of David Crockett of Hie State of Tennessee. Written by Himself. Phila- 
delphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart (Baltimore: Carey, Hart and Company), 1834. The only 
fairly reliable re-issue in this century, a reprint with some inaccuracies and without notes, 
was published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1923, with an introduction by Hamlin Garland, 
in the Modern Students Library Edition, American Division. The present writer has coUated 
and completely annotated the original text and hopes to make it available before Jong. 




GENERAL VIEW OF ACTON CEMETERY IN HOOD COUNTY, TEXAS, WHERE 
ELIZABETH PATTON CROCKETT IS BURIED. THE LITTLE TOWN OF ACTON IS 
SITUATED ABOUT 35 MILES SOUTHWEST OF FORT WORTH; AND THIS GRAVE- 
YARD IS LOCATED FIVE MILES SOUTH OF THE OLD HOMEPLACE WHERE MRS. 
CROCKETT SETTLED IN 1856 ON A 1,280-ACRE DAVID-CROCKETT-TRACT GIVEN 
BY THE STATE OF TEXAS TO CROCKETT'S HEIRS. THE PRESENT U. S. HIGH- 
WAY 377 NOW RUNS BY THE ORIGINAL TRACT FIVE MILES NORTH OF ACTON 
CEMETERY. 




THE MONUMENT IN ACTON CEMETERY TO ELIZABETH PATTON CROCKETT, 
TRIBUTE TO THE PIONEER WIFE AND MOTHER WHO, AT 66, CAME WITH THE 
FIRST SETTLERS TO ELLIS COUNTY, TEXAS, IN 1854. (SHE MOVED TWO YEARS 
LATER TO THE JOHNSON, NOW HOOD, COUNTY HOMESITE ON THE CROCKETT 
SUREVY FIVE MILES NORTH OF THIS SPOT, AND DIED THERE FOUR YEARS 
LATER.) 



David Crockett and North Carolina 303 

scription on the Elizabeth Patton monument in Texas, for ex- 
ample (she went there after David's death to occupy land given 
to his heirs), states that she married Crockett "in Lawrence Co. 
Tenn. 1815/' when in fact that county was not even created until 
October 21, 1817, and even then not out of territory where Crock- 
ett was living when he married (Franklin County) but out of 
territory some eighty miles away. Furthermore, David tells us 
himself 10 that his first wife was "well and doing well" when 
he came out of the war in February, 1815, 11 and the list of oc- 
currences which he records as preceding his next marriage veri- 
fies other evidence leading us to set the actual marriage date and 
place as the spring or summer of 1816 near Bean's Creek, in 
Franklin County. It could hardly have been earlier, and a care- 
ful reading of chapter IX of his autobiography makes it clear 
that it could not have been later. (Several months more than a 
year elapsed, he there records, between the time of his marriage 
and his removal to Lawrence County in the fall of 1817.) 

Elizabeth Patton was the fourth child of Robert Patton, one 
of the early and well-known settlers in territory later included 
in Buncombe County. She was born on May 22, 1788, at the pres- 
ent site of Swannanoa, North Carolina, 12 and it is noteworthy 
that on the day Buncombe was organized, April 16, 1792, her 
father was ordered by the court to attend as juror at the suc- 
ceeding session. 13 To indicate something of the contemporary 
standing of the Pattons in the community, it may be added that 
the earliest place of church assembly of the settlement there was 
known as Robert Patton's Meeting House, which, according to 
Sondley: "was, it seems, the first church structure in western 
North Carolina"; 14 and that the first burying ground used by 
white settlers seems to have been in conjunction with it. 15 John 
Patton, father of Robert Patton, who had come to America from 
Ireland, had at least two sons, Elijah and Robert. Elijah had two 
children, Rebecca and James;, and the latter married his first 



10 While it is true that -Davie} had help in the phrasing 1 of his autobiography, a thorough 
combing of all the old evidence and -the discovery of much new evidence from a number of 
sources, including his own holographs and court records, verify positively that the factual 
content of that' volume was even minutely- his own and, with a- few minor exceptions, minutely 
accurate. • 

11 Toward the conclusion of Chapter VIII of his autobiography. 
13 From tombstone records of her in Hood County, Texas. 

13 F. A. Sondley, History of Buncombe County, North Carolina. (Asheville: The Advocate 
Printing Company), 1930, II, 459. 

14 Sondley, History of Buncombe County, II, 702. 

15 Sondley, History of Buncombe County, II« 713. 



304 The North Carolina Historical Review 

cousin, Elizabeth, fourth child of John's other son, Robert. (Thus 
Elizabeth Patton retained her maiden name after her marriage.) 
Robert had in all eight children, in the following order : George, 
Sally (Sarah) , Ann, Elizabeth, Matilda, Margaret, Rebecca, and 
James. 16 

From the marriage of these first cousins, James and Elizabeth, 
two children were born, George and Margaret Ann, and when 
James was killed in the Creek War and Elizabeth married David 
Crockett, these children became David's foster children, informa- 
tion about whom from this point may be found in the Crockett 
genealogical study previously cited. 17 Information on the mar- 
riages of the other Robert Patton children and the removal of 
most of them to Tennessee to David's neighborhood, together 
with David's executorship of the Robert Patton estate must come 
in another place. 18 Here we must return to the current of our 
story. 

An exhaustive search of all Crockett material 19 — surprisingly 
the first ever made, despite the numerous "biographies," "lives," 
and accounts which have been issued about him — turned up, 
among other things, a North Carolina legend which had never 
been investigated and which had seemingly never even been 
heard beyond the borders of the state, despite all the Crockett 
tall tales and fabrications circulated at the national level. But 
in North Carolina from time to time one would encounter the 
repetition of this unsupported legend, as for example in an 
article by Mr. J. B. Hicklin in The State, 20 one line of which read : 

"I can hit him anywhere I choose," he told his second, the dis- 
tinguished Warren David [sic. Davis, cousin of John C. Cal- 
houn] of South Carolina, and his friend, the storied David Crock- 
ett. [Italics added.] 



16 Information on John, his son Elijah, and Elijah's line came from Miss Mary M. Greenlee, 
of Mooresville, N. C, who is descended from Elijah through Elijah's daughter Rebecca; that 
on the other son, Robert, and his children, from the court records of Gibson County, Ten- 
nessee, especially the Gibson County Chancery Court Minutes. Book A, 1834-47, Parts 1, 2, 3 
(Transcripts Tennessee State Library, Nashville). 

17 French and Armstrong, The Crockett Family a*i4 Connecting Lines, 346-356. 

w In Gentleman from the Cane: the Biography of David Crockett. See conclusion to foot- 
note 21. below, 305. 

10 The only Crockett bibliography ever compiled may be found, annotated and collated, as 
Appendix II to the present writer's doctoral dissertation, The Autobiography of David 
Crockett, an Annotated Edition, With Portraits, Maps, and Appendices, submitted to Vander- 
bilt University in the spring of 1948. 

30 "The Carson-Vance Duel," The State, VI (December, 1938), 9. For other instances, J. P. 
Arthur, Western North Carolina, (Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 1914), 359-64, and the 
allusions therein given. 





mmmmmmm ■ if- 

CLOSF-UP OF THE BASE OF THE MONUMENT TO ELIZABETH PATTON CROCKETT 




THE FLAT GRAVESTONE LYING AT THE FOOT OF THE MONUMENT. ERECTED 
AND DEDICATED BY THE STATE OF TEXAS ON MAY 30, 1913. (HER AGE WAS 72 
RATHER THAN THE 82 RECORDED ON THIS TOMBSTONE. THE PLACE AND 
DATE OF HER MARRIAGE TO DAVID CROCKETT ARE ALSO IN ERROR, FOR 
THESE WERE: FRANKLIN COUNTY, SPRING OR SUMMER OF 1816.) 



David Crockett and North Carolina 305 

No evidence other than legend had been found to connect David 
Crockett with such a duel, or even to hint at it, and the writer 
decided to examine all records, including Crockett holographs, 21 
and to ascertain, in view of the many fictions which confuse 
the man's history, whether the story were not capable of easy 
refutation. 22 The court records of West Tennessee continued to 
refer to him in such a ivay as to shoiv that he tvas physically pres- 
ent only up to September, 1826, fourteen months before the duel, 
and then dropped him until June 2, 1828, seven months after it. 23 
True, there was one record of him on October 23, 1827, only 
two weeks prior to the duel, but this merely noted that he had 
previously "gone security" for William B. Almon and was to 
make good Almon's default of his obligation, 24 not indicating at 
all that he was physically present. The last entry of any sort plac- 
ing him physically in Tennessee at this time was a surveyor's en- 
try of twenty-five acres of land bought by him in Weakley County 
on October 1, 1827. 25 There was thus a gap of five weeks prior to 
the duel during which no record could be found to place him in 
Tennessee — an interval more than ample for a trip to North 
Carolina. 

Careful reference to Crockett holographs revealed no direct 
mention of the duel (only four of his letters of this period survive, 
however), but did establish definitely in his own handwriting 



21 The writer has compiled a bibliography of 59 such holographs, of which he has in whole 
or partial photostat 36, in whole or partial reliable typescript 9 more, with 14 yet unlocated. 
Help is solicited in locating any Crockett letters, originals or copies, in order that this first 
and only collection may be made as complete as possible. Crockett's letters to North Carolina 
(to his dear friend and brother-in-law, George Patton) are among the most valuable he 
wrote and constituted most likely his bulkiest correspondence, but only two of them have 
ever come to light, these being among the important few which allow us deep insights into 
the simple, unvarnished heart of the man. 

In the possession of the Tennessee Historical Society is a letter dated Asheville, N. C, 
June 25, 1872, from E. J. Aston to Governor John C. Brown of Tennessee, which refers to 
the interest of Tennessee in Crockett, and which speaks of transmitting accordingly several 
items in the possession of the writer to the state of Tennessee, including a letter from David 
to George Patton, of Swannanoa, which the Tennessee Historical Society yet has (one of the 
two mentioned), and a circular letter of David's, a sort of political pamphlet, of 1824, which 
was no doubt connected with his first (unsuccessful) attempt to be elected to Congress in 
1825. This pamphlet, regrettably, has been lost. Mr. Aston stated in the transmitting letter 
that these documents were taken from among a number of such items found among the 
papers of George Patton. Evidently, therefore, other valuable Crockett letters did at that 
time still exist, and they have never since been discovered. Any information which might lead 
to uncovering these or similar documents would be appreciated and, in due course, credited by 
the writer, who is now completing the first biography of the historical David Crockett, based 
upon original records. 

22 It could not be regarded as clear refutation that Crockett's autobiography failed to men- 
tion the matter, as the space there devoted to the whole of his six Congressional years is 
foreshortened into a brief few pages toward the end, many things, there and elsewhere, being 
omitted. 

23 For September, 1826, dates: Gibson County Court Minutes, Book A, 1824-28, 197, and 
Gibson County Circuit Court Minute Book A, 1824-32, 53-54; for June 2, 1828, see Gibson 
County Court Wills and Bonds Book I, 1825-1833, 97. (Transcripts, Tennessee State Library.) 

24 Gibson Circuit Court Minute Book A, 1824-1832, 99. 

25 West Tennessee Land Office Records, Book 2 "A," 474. (Tennessee State Archives.) 



306 The North Carolina Historical Review 

(in a letter heretofore unpublished) that he was visiting in 
Swannanoa at the time the duel took place, and further included 
a phrase which might have been an allusion to the duel. On Feb- 
ruary 5, 1828, Crockett wrote the second-earliest of his sur- 
viving letters, so far as yet discovered. It is a report, political 
and otherwise, to a friend, James Blackburn, who, the content 
leads me to believe, was an East Tennessean. Reviewing Con- 
gressional matters, praising Jackson and predicting his election 
to the Presidency, and recounting events since David had last 
seen Blackburn, this letter includes the following remarks: 

... I have enjoyed the worst health Sence I arrived here that I 
ever did in my life I was taken the next day after I left your 
house with the bitter feaver tho I traveled until I arived at my 
father in laws thare I was taken down and lay four weeks then 
I got abel to travel I Started on and my wife and Sone Returnd 
home I have Reed two letters from my Sone Sence he got home 
he wrote me that they found all well at home. ... I have been 
taken down three times Sence I arrived here the last attact was 
the pluricy the doctor took two quarts of Blood from me at one 
time I am much Reduced in flesh and have lost all my Red Rosy 
Cheeks that I have carryed So many years I have thought twice 
that I was never to See my f amaly any more tho thanks be to god 
I hope that I am Recovering as fast as I could expect I have a 
great hope that I am to Spend the ballance of the Session with 
much better health I can not gave you the infermation that I 
would wish to in the limets of a letter 26 

He asks to be remembered to his old neighbors, expresses un- 
certainty as to whether he "will Return home through your 
Country or not," and closes "your freend and well wisher David 
Crockett/' 

From this letter, from the court and genealogical records men- 
tioned, and from the fact that David had won his canvass for 
election to Congress in August, 1827, we can easily reconstruct 
what happened. David set out with his family about October 1 
for a visit to his wife's people, a rest, and a celebration of victory. 
Along the way lived James Blackburn, friend and former neigh- 
bor of Middle or East Tennessee, and there David broke his 
journey. He later proceeded toward Swannanoa, was taken sick, 
persevered, arrived, and remained for something over a month 



26 The original is in the possession of the Tennessee Historical Society, which has generously 
extended permission for its publication. The quotation is from a photostat of the original. 



David Crockett and North Carolina 



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David Crockett and North Carolina- 3:11 

(until about mid-November) , and then proceeded to Washington, 
where he arrived sometime in early December, according to his 
own letters and the postmarks thereon (though the first record 
in the Congressional Debates of his presence for a vote is for 
December 21, 1827 ). 27 In other words, from the time he arrived 
about mid-October until he had to set out so as to attend the 
convocation of Congress on December 3, 1827, Crockett remained 
at Swannanoa, since he went directly from there to Washington. 
That time was at least a month by his own account ; it therefore 
included the date of the Carson- Vance duel, November 6, 1827. 
It is possible that the statement, "I can not gave you the infer- 
mation that I would wish to in the limets of a letter," may tacitly 
refer to the duel, inasmuch as dueling was illegal and was 
frowned on by many in the South, and as the recent duel, a very 
painful matter to Crockett's friend, Sam Carson, as a later docu- 
ment will show, may be assumed therefore also to have been 
painful to David. (It is interesting to see that David had earlier, 
in the Tennessee legislature, introduced a bill to amend an act 
entitled "An act more effectually to prevent duelling," though 
his amending bill was rejected.) 28 Because it is entirely likely 
that he would not desire to discuss in a letter the duel which had 
ended in tragedy, this sentence may be an allusion to the matter 
without a discussion of it. 

David's failure specifically to mention so significant an event, 
however, and his statement that he had been ill for four weeks 
during that period may prejudice the conclusion that he was 
present. Yet other evidence tends to support its probability. Sam 
Carson's home was in Pleasant Gardens, a scant twenty-five miles 
east of Swannanoa; the Carsons and the Pattons were both 
prominent families and must have been well acquainted — in fact, 
the Burgins, close friends of Sam Carson (Captain, later General, 
Alney Burgin delivered Sam Carson's challenge letter to Robert 
Vance) were David's in-laws, since Abner Burgin was the hus- 
band of Elizabeth Patton's sister, Margaret. Further, according 
to Miss Mary M. Greenlee, there were living in Brentwood, Ten- 
nessee (a town not far from where David had attended sessions 
of the state legislature) three Wilson girls who had been former 



27 Congressional Debates, Twentieth Congress, First Session, IV, Part 2, December 21, 1827. 

28 Tennessee House Journal, Fifteenth General Assembly, First Session, 1823, 229. 



312 ; The North Carolina Historical Review 

residents of Pleasant Gardens, Rebecca, and Catherine, sisters, 
and Almyra, a first cousin; and three Carson brothers married 
them : Joseph, Rebecca ; Sam, Catherine ; and William, Almyra. 29 
All these facts, viewed in the light of the political affiliations of 
the times and the perigrinations of the settlers without reference 
to county or state boundaries, make it likely that Crockett and 
Carson, elected to the same Congress, knew each other. And we 
conclude that they knew each other well when we find in the 
Congressional Record two references by Sam Carson to his "hon- 
orable friend from Tennessee," 30 David Crockett, in a context 
which reveals that friend is employed quite literally. Considering 
all of this, together with the fact that both Crockett and Carson 
were traveling to Washington at the same time via Swannanoa 
and Asheville, it appears likely that the "friends" with whom 
Carson's challenge letter stated he was to travel to Congress may 
have included David. He was unquestionably Carson's friend. 
He was surely within a few miles of the scene of the duel when 
it took place. But was he there? At this point a brief resume of 
the Carson-Vance duel is necessary; for the details the reader 
is referred elsewhere. 31 

The Carsons and the Vances were both politically prominent 
families. Sam Carson was the son of Colonel John Carson, North 
Carolina legislator ; and Robert B. Vance had formerly been Con- 
gressman (defeated by Sam Carson in 1825, and running against 
him again in 1827) and was an uncle of Governor-to-be Zebulon 
B. Vance. The battle waged hot, and as voting time drew near, 
Vance made a serious public charge against Sam's grandfather, 
that he had been a Tory and had "taken protection" when General 
Ferguson invaded Burke County during Revolutionary times. 
Colonel John Carson, Sam's father, demanded a retraction, per- 
haps threatening a challenge, and Vance replied by letter, "I can 
have no altercation with a man of your age, and if I have ag- 
grieved you, you certainly have some of your chivalrous sons 
that will protect you from insult." A letter was then dispatched 
by the "chivalrous son" Sam direct to Vance, the upshot of which 



20 See below, p. 314, n. 34. 

30 Congressional Debates, Twentieth Congress, Second Session, V, 199-200. 

31 J. B. Hicklin, "The Carson- Vance Duel." For much more complete accounts: J. P. Arthur, 
Western North Carolina, 359-3G4; and A. C. Avery, "The North Carolina Review Section," 
The Nev>s and Observer (Raleigh), March 2, 1913, 1-2, 11. An earlier Avery account (The 
North Carolina Booklet, IV, No. 3, (July, 1904), 19-22) made the error of referring to War- 
ren Davis as Warren David, and is probably the source of Hicklin's previously quoted error. 



David Crockett and North Carolina 313 

was the duel and Vance's death. 32 Anti-dueling laws of Tennessee 
and North Carolina resulted in the duel's being fought just across 
the South Carolina line, near Saluda, N. C. Without more details 
on this score, interesting though they be, since they may be found 
elsewhere, the final link in this chain may now be examined. This 
link is a letter, 33 heretofore unpublished, from Rebecca Carson 
Whitson, daughter of Sam Carson himself, to W. C. Ervin, of 
Morganton, N. C, a first cousin once removed as well as a step- 
nephew of Mrs. Whitson's (see next footnote). It reads: 

Talladega, Ala. June 6th 1894 
Dear Dear Willie :- 

I am so much obliged to you for sending me this account of 
my father's & Dr. Vance's duel, fear though I can not gratify 
your object in sending it to me, for I know very little about it. 
Gen. Burgin who carried the challenge to Dr. Vance, told me 
after all the parties were on the ground my father who went in 
[John C] Calhoun's carriage stepped out, threw his cloak on 
the ground and lay down on it while everything was being ar- 
ranged, he then heard some altercation between the seconds and 
was told it was about Dr. Vance's pistol having the largest cali- 
bers, he then replied, I wave all objections, let the gentlemen 
[sic] take his stand, that Vance said soon as he saw my father, 
he felt his doom was sealed, no doubt Vance believing so firmly 
in his friends assertion of my father ['s] cowardice was started 
into that presentiment by his fearless manner. I have also heard 
Dr. Vance lived three days after the duel and shot himself during 
that time. 

David Crockett was the first man who brought the news 
to Pleasant Gardens, he rode his horse almost to death, beat his 
hat to pieces & came dashing up yelling "The Victory is Ours." 
It is true, my father was greatly agitated, would have given way 
entirely to his feelings and thrown himself down by the side of 
Dr. Vance if Warren R. [C sic] Davis and other friends had not 
caught and almost forced him into the carriage, he then insisted 
on his surgeon Dr. Sheflin, for he was considered the finest 
surgeon in Western N.C., attending Vance, but as to my father 
never drawing a sober breath or being haunted by an Spectre, 
never heard such a thing insinuated, but think my mother would 
have known & told me if that had been true. Although Duelling 



32 The original challenge letter has been lost and may have been destroyed when the home 
burned some years ago. But reliable copies were made prior to its loss, and one such was 
printed in the A. C. Avery News and Observer article cited above, together with a Silas 
McDowell manuscript recording his recollections of the whole affair. This is the material 
drawn on by J. P. Arthur in the reference cited above, though he quotes only a small portion 
of the duel letter. 

33 Sent me through the generosity of Miss Greenlee. She states that she personally read the 
original letter in the possession of its addressee, W. C. Ervin, that he himself gave her the copy 
and permission to use it, that it has not heretofore been published, and that the writer may 
use it. She does not know the inheritor of Ervin's papers, but is investigating in a search 
for the original. 



314 The North Carolina Historical Review 

was customary and not looked on in those days (most seventy 
years ago) with such horror & disapprobation as it is now, to a 
man of my father's generous nature, for I have been told he was 
the very soul of chivalry with the warmest heart & tenderest 
sympathy, such an act (although unavoidable) was a source of 
great grievance and pain, but never drove him to drunkeness 
that caused his death, he was born in 1798, died in his fortieth 
year, of dyspepsia, and several of the Carsons died of the same 
disease. Your grandfather, uncle William, among them. 

The Challenge was written on September 12th. 1827 

The letter goes on with some more personal matters, and is 

signed, 

Affectionately, 

Your Aunt, 34 
R. C. Whitson 

There is added a postscript which seems worthy of quoting : 

Never heard, but suppose, my father being in favor of nullifica- 
tion beat him for Congress & caused him and Gen. Jackson to fall 
out. After he was beaten he went to Miss, with one hundred 
negroes, moved from there to Texas 35 when it was a Republic. 
My mother told me he was solicited to run for President [of 
Texas] -Sam Houston insisted on his running, said he would not 
oppose him, but he was in such bad health he positively refused 
to run., after that he was made Secretary of State [of Texas]. 

Thus concludes the story of Crockett's connection with this 
famous North Carolina duel, and the evidence here recorded 
would appear to establish the legend of his presence at it as fact. 
The story of Crockett's relation to North Carolina, however, is 



** Sam and William Carson (brothers) married Catherine and Almyra Wilson (first 
cousins). Sarah Rebecca Carson Whitson, writer of this letter, was the daughter of Sam and 
Catherine; Matilda, the "Tillie" of this letter, was the daughter of William and Almyra. 
William Carson Ervin, addressee of the letter, was Matilda's son, hence Rebecca Whitson's 
first cousin once removed (he was also her second cousin once removed by another connection). 
But after the death of Sam and Almyra, William married Sam's widow, Catherine. Thus 
Rebecca Whitson became Tillie's step-sister and hence step-aunt to W. C. Ervin, which ex- 
plains the close, "Your Aunt," as well as the reference to "Your grandfather, uncle William" 
(italics added). There are additional complications of relationship, for Katy Carson, aunt of 
Sam and William, was the grandmother of the three Wilson girls (so that they were first 
cousins once removed of their husbands), but this is sufficient for present purposes. 

35 A mistake, for Sam Carson returned to North Carolina before going to Texas. A photo- 
static letter in the writer's possession, from Carson to Hon. John Branch, Enfield, Halifax, 
N. C, headed "Nullifier's Retreat, 8th Sept 1835" but postmarked Brindleton, N. C, Septem- 
ber 9, 183-4 (the year in pen), states that "We start 'Lock Stock & Barrels' on the 22nd 
inst. Should have started this day. but -for my sickness." From the context, the Red River 
country of Texas is clearly his destination, and he asks that Governor Branch write him at 
"Layfayette C. H. Arkansas Territory," evidently a stop en route. If Governor Branch 
Tfrom December 3, 1817, to December 7, 1820] should come down in the winter or spring, 
Carson states that he will "probably return with you & spend the summer in Old No Ca." 
The sickness to which the Whitson letter attributes his failure to run for office Sam Carson 
here calls the "Cholera (I think real Cholera but the Physicians add 'Morbus.')" With refer- 
ence to Mrs. Whitson's comment on her father's drinking, the following additional sentence 
from this letter is interesting: "I have abandoned Spirits in toto. & Mrs. Carson has also 
Snuff — Tbia I am confident you will be pjcased to Jearn." Brindleton was in Burke County. 



David Crockett and North Carolina 315 

not here completed ; for there are important letters of David to 
his brother-in-law George Patton, of Swannanoa; court records 
of later date indicating a transfer of property in Tennessee from 
David to George Patton (the first positive connection of David 
with his famous "Go ahead" motto appears on these instruments 
conveying land and "one negro girl, named Adaline" from David 
to George) ; 36 and finally those matters concerning the removal 
of most of the Pattons to David's neighborhood in West Tennes- 
see, including David's administration of Robert Patton's estate, 
Robert Patton's will, and a final letter by David's son John W., to 
his uncle, George Patton, announcing his father's death at the 
Alamo. But this part of David's North Carolina connections 
must await the publication of The Gentleman from the Cane. 



86 Weakley County (Tennessee) Court Minutes, 1827-35, I, 264. 



THE PROFESSIONAL THEATER IN WILMINGTON, 

1870-1900* 

By Donald J. Rulfs 

The present writer's previous study of the professional theater 
in Wilmington has indicated that during the fall of 1855 the old 
Innes Academy building, which contained a theater on the ground 
fioor, was torn down by the town authorities in order that a new 
combined City Hall and theater might be erected on the same 
site, the northeast corner of Third and Princess streets. 1 The 
cornerstone of the new structure, which still stands, was laid 
on December 27, 1855, and the well-equipped theater with a 
seating capacity of 950 was opened to the public on October 12, 
1858, for a month of nightly performances by the G. F. Mar- 
chant Company of the Charleston Theater. 

During the remainder of the successful first season, other stock 
companies brought the total number of performances to eighty- 
five, and thereafter the new theater continued to receive good 
support until the outbreak of the Civil War when performances 
became sporadic and then ceased altogether during and following 
the tragic yellow fever epidemic in Wilmington during the fall 
of 1862. During the remaining years of the war, however, the 
theater was reopened and flourished as a result of the boom 
brought about by blockade-running, and during the peak season 
1863-1864 no less than 240 performances were offered in the new 
theater, with thirty-four additional performances in the City 
Hall. After the war, productions again became irregular during 
the difficult years of reconstruction, but by the season of 1869- 
1870 the theater had almost regained its normal ante-bellum 
support. 

During the period covered by this survey, Wilmington in- 
creased in population from 13,446 in 1870 to 20,976 in 1900, a 
result mainly of the steady growth of the town's exporting and 
importing trade in the chief commodities of cotton, lumber, and 
turpentine. A detailed report of the Wilmington Chamber of 



* This is the second in a series of three articles dealing with The Professional Theater in 
Wilmington. Editor. 

1 "The Professional Theater in Wilmington, 1858-1870," The North Carolina Historical 
Review. XXVIII (April. 1951), 119-136. 

[316] 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 317 

Commerce in 1872 indicated that the production of cotton in 
the state had greatly increased since the war and that the native 
product as well as cotton from Georgia and South Carolina was 
being exported through Wilmington to the amount of 95,000 
bales in 1871. 2 Sailing vessels were used almost exclusively in 
this trade, but with the gradual deepening of the channel of the 
Cape Fear, the new era of steam began with the arrival of the 
British steamer Barnesmore in 1881, 3 and the size of the cargoes 
continued to increase. Records of the Wilmington Produce Ex- 
change indicated the annual total cotton receipts ending August 
31, 1886, to be 101,494 bales, 4 while ten years later the volume 
had increased to nearly 200,000 bales, ranking Wilmington as 
the seventh cotton port of the country. 5 In addition, the town 
in 1896 was the terminus of five railroads : the Carolina Central, 
under control of the Seaboard Air Line ; the Wilmington, Colum- 
bia, and Augusta and the Wilmington and Weldon, under control 
of the Atlantic Coast Line; the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley; 
and the Wilmington, New Bern, and Norfolk. 6 

As a result of the increase in population and commerce, the 
professional theater was, with the exception of the depression 
years 1876-1878, well supported over the thirty-year period. 
Seasons averaged about forty performances, although there were 
sixty-three during 1871-1872, sixty-seven during 1887-1888, and 
108 during 1899-1900. During the earlier years from 1858 to 
1870, performances had consisted mainly of plays offered by 
capable stock companies that would remain for several weeks 
or months at a time. After 1870 the stock companies continued 
but usually for engagements by the week only, while touring 
musical extravaganzas and comic operas greatly increased in 
popularity. In addition, an entirely new type of performance 
was that of the nationally or internationally famous performer 
on tour. Finally, a more modern type of production was the tour- 
ing New York hit play, presented by one of the new "combina- 
tion" companies, which consisted of a leading performer carrying 
his own supporting cast as well as his own scenery and stage 



3 James Sprunt, Chronicles of the Cape 'Fear River, 1660-1916 (Raleigh: Edwards and 
Broughton, 1916, 2d ed.), 512-513. 
3 Sprunt, Chronicles of the Cape Fear, 501. 

* Wilmington Morning Star, September 1, 1886. 

6 North Carolina and Its Resources (Raleigh: State Board of Agriculture, 1896), 135, 374. 

• North Carolina and Its Re^ouroe^ 375. 



318 The North Carolina Historical Review 

crew. Engagements of the famous performers and the "combina- 
tions" were usually for one or two nights. 

Of the stock companies which appeared during the first decade 
of the period 1870-1900, the most popular was the Katie Putnam 
Company, which opened on December 9, 1872, for a week's offer- 
ing of such favorites as The Old Curiosity Shop, Meg's Diversion, 
Rosedale, East Lynne, Fanchon the Cricket, Child of the Regi- 
ment (Saturday matinee), and Romeo and Juliet. As an indica- 
tion of the town's appreciation of Miss Putnam's talents, there 
appeared in the Wilmington Daily Journal for December 13 a 
letter signed by forty-two citizens asking her to make the play 
of that evening, Fanchon, her benefit performance. When the 
troupe returned on February 10, 1874, for a week Miss Putnam 
in Fanchon received six curtain calls on the first night and was 
presented more bouquets than she could carry. 7 After a three- 
night engagement beginning on January 25 of the same year, 
the company made its last appearance during the decade for two 
nights on January 3-4, 1876, when there were again many curtain 
calls, and the actress was designated as "Wilmington's little 
favorite." 8 

Almost as popular with Wilmington audiences as the Putnam 
Company was the Rose and Harry Watkins Troupe, which ap- 
peared for short engagements on March 20, 1871 ; January 22 and 
November 4, 1872; and October 24, 1877. However, the troupe 
with the largest personnel, twenty-five members, and the largest 
repertoire was the Old Reliable Company, featuring Helen 
D'Este and J. G. Stuttz. The group opened on February 8, 1872, 
for eleven performances of all the stock favorites : East Lynne, 
Leah the Forsaken, Ten Nights in a Bar Room, Fanchon, Camille, 
Cynthia, Ingomar, The Lady of Lyons, Fazio, and The Hidden 
Hand. Miss D'Este was received as "a careful student of the 
human emotions, and a fine portrayer of them," 9 and as for the 
troupe as a whole, we are informed that "this mammoth company 
are 'dead letter perfect* in their parte, and correct in their cos- 
tumes and stage business." 10 Other popujar companies were the 
Lillie Eldridge and Harry Langdon Troupe, which played for 



7 Morning Star, February 11. 1874. 
•Wilmington Daily Journal^ January 4, 1876. 
» Daily Journal, February 9, 1872. 
»Wllmi»etoo Poet, February 11. 1872. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 319 

three nights beginning October 16, 1873, and was described as 
". . . one of the very best combinations that has visited the South 
since the war," 11 and the Kate Fisher Company with her horse 
"Wonder" in Mazeppa and other action-packed pieces for a week 
beginning November 11, 1872, and again in Mazeppa for one 
night on December 15, 1875. 

The very popular type of entertainment in the form of bur- 
lesque musical extravaganza was well represented by the Chap- 
man Sisters and C. B. Bishop Company, which appeared for a 
week beginning on November 14, 1870, with such pieces as 
Sleeping Beauty, My Precious Betsey, Pluto, Cinderella, and The 
Forty Thieves; again on March 3-4, 1871, with Much Ado About 
a Merchant of Venice and Little Jack Shephard; and on Novem- 
ber 28-29, 1873, with Don Giovanni and Leo and Lotus, drawing 
the largest audiences of the season 12 and producing "shouts of 
laughter." 13 The Worrell Sisters Burlesque and Opera Bouffe 
Company with twenty-five performers appeared November 10-12, 
1870, and for a week beginning November 13, 1871, while Lisa 
Weber's Celebrated English Blondes offered Ernani, La Somyiam- 
bula, and Lurline on November 30 and December 1-3, 1870, bring- 
ing forth the estimate that ". . . the women are all good looking 
and the men irresistibly droll." 14 Although the original company 
of The Black Crook, the first successful American revue, had 
visited Wilmington in 1868, the Bidwill and McDonough Black 
Crook which appeared November 24-26, 1873, played to a house 
"brimful and running over," 15 and it was said that ". . . . the 
scenery is rich and beautiful, the tableaux gorgeous, the ballet 
dancing excellent, the array of female performance striking." 16 
As far as "the array of female performance" was concerned, 
however, the Black Crook production could not compare with 
Mile. Ninon Duclo's Sensational Blondes Revue, October 18-19, 
1877, which did indeed prove to be a sensation for Wilmington's 
Victorian theater-goers and caused much breezy comment in 
the press. The reviewer for the Morning Star observed that for 
the first night's performance the exclusively male audience ". . . 



u Morning Star, October 17, 1873. 
& Morning Star, November 29, 1873. 

13 Evening Post, November 29, 1873. 

14 Daily Journal, December 2, 1870. 

15 Morning Star, November 25, 1873. 
w Daily Journal. November 25, 1873. 



320 The North Carolina Historical Review 

appeared to admire the rigid economy observed by the 'Dizzies' 
in the purchase of their wardrobes" and that he expected for the 
second night a large audience ". . . who will go just to encourage 
twenty modest maidens (all orphans) in their praiseworthy 
efforts to make an honest living," adding that "opera glasses 
will not be needed — screens will be more appropriate." 17 

In the field of extravaganza, the Humpty Dumpty pantomime 
companies were popular throughout the decade, the first being 
John Templeton's show on February 1, 1872. This was followed by 
the Fox and Denier Humpty Dumpty on March 30-31, 1874, "as 
played for 3 years in New York City," according to the adver- 
tisements. The company returned on December 28-29 of the 
same year, February 22, 1875, and January 8, 1879, when it 
was declared to be "about the best pantomime troupe that has 
ever visited Wilmington," with "the finish and smoothness in- 
separable from the work of the true artist wherever seen." 18 

For those who preferred more serious musical entertainment 
there were frequent opportunities to enjoy opera. Mrs. James 
A. (Dates' Comic Opera Company offered The Daughter of the 
Regiment, Fortunio, and The Flotver Girl of Paris on March 
21-23, 1872, and The Grand Duchess on January 20, 1874, when 
it was stated concerning Mrs. Oates that ". . . in this community 
there is but one sentiment regarding her — that of unqualified 
admiration." 19 Similarly well received was the Holman Opera 
Troupe, which presented The Grand Duchess, La Somnambula, 
and The Bohemian Girl on November 6-7, 1874, and Girolfe 
Girofla, Cinderella, and La Fille de Madame Angot on November 
26-27, 1875. The Adelaide Philips Italian Opera Company offered 
The Barber of Seville on January 12, 1875, while the Adah 
Richmond English Opera Company repeated Girolfe Girofla on 
February 3, 1879, and added The Chimes of Normandy the next 
evening. The great popularity of H. M. S. Pinafore was first 
manifested on March 20 of the same year when the Holman 
troupe offered it, and thereafter the following Pinafore com- 
panies came in rather rapid succession : Campbell's Comic Opera 
Company of New York on April 7, the Star Alliance Opera Com- 



W October 19. 1877. 

M Wilmingrton Daily Review, January 9, 187S. 

» Daily Journal, January 21. 1874. 



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The Professional Theater in Wilmington 321 

pany on September 29, Ford's Juvenile Opera Company on 
October 2, the Rentz-Santley Novelty Company on November 22, 
and the Hayes Juvenile Opera Company on April 7, 1880, which 
was the previous juvenile troupe under new management. Each 
production of Pinafore was hailed as being better than the pre- 
ceding one, but the juvenile company was generally regarded as 
the best. 

In addition, music lovers had frequent opportunities to hear 
the best in concert music with such performances as those of the 
Adelaide Philips Concert Company, featuring Mr. J. Levy, "the 
greatest cornet player in the world," on February 4, 1871 ; Mrs. 
Charles Moulton, prima donna, January 1, 1872 ; Blind Tom, an 
unusually talented Negro pianist who had appeared in Wilming- 
ton for many years, on January 29, 1872; Ole Bull, Norwegian 
violinist who had also previously appeared in Wilmington, on 
November 26, 1872 ; Herr L. von Myerhoff of Vienna, pianist, on 
January 7, 1874 ; and Rosa D'Erina, Irish prima donna, January 
21-22, 1878. 

The first of the famous actors to appear in Wilmington during 
1870-1880 was Edwin Forrest, who played for three nights, 
October 24-26, 1870, in Richelieu, Damon and Pythias, and King 
Lear. The local theatrical reviewers were, of course, enthusiastic 
over all three performances, but his Lear made the greatest im- 
pression : "Powerful, passionate, grand, and terrible is he while 
pronouncing his curse upon Goneril; distressingly passionate 
and pitiable is he in his despair ; wild, raving, and awe-inspiring 
is he in the full tide of his madness." 20 Next came Mme. Fanny 
Janauschek, a native of Prague who had become famous on the 
European stage. She first appeared in Wilmington on January 
9, 1875, as Queen Elizabeth in The Earl of Essex and made the 
following impression : "She was Elizabeth as we have always con- 
ceived her, perfect, unvarying, singular, magnificent, weak in her 
affections, yet terrible in action." 21 Three years later she returned 
on January 11-12, 1878, in Catherine of Russia and Macbeth. Her 
role of Catherine was described as ". . . one continuous sweep of 
impassioned personation . . . truly regal in her fearlessness, and 
terrible in her displeasure, yet withal so tenderly woman in her 



20 Daily Journal, October 27, 1870. 
» Daily Journal, January 10, 1875. 



322 The North Carolina Historical Review 

love." 22 Equally great was her interpretation of the role of Lady 
Macbeth : ''Under the transforming touch of her genius the re- 
markable creation of the poet stands forth in vivid and distinct 
colors — the concentrated passion and fire and grandeur being 
all represented/' 23 In the meantime, Mary Anderson appeared in 
Romeo and Juliet on February 16, 1877, and the next year on 
January 30-31 in Richard L. Shell's Evadne and Munch-Belling- 
hausen's Ingomar, being well received in all three of the produc- 
tions. 

The first of the great comedians to appear was Edward A. 
Sothern, who played the role of Lord Dundreary in Tom Taylor's 
Our American Cousin on February 19, 1878, and on the next 
evening the role of De Lacy Fitzaltamont in his own play A 
Crushed Tragedian. The local press found that ". . . as a great 
comedian, he deserves to the full measure his most brilliant 
reputation." 24 He was followed on November 16 of the same year 
by Joseph Murphy, Irish comedian, who appeared in The Kerry 
Cow and fully satisfied the expectations of all reviewers. Next, 
on January 17, 1880, the greatest of all the American comedians, 
Joseph Jefferson, who had first played in Wilmington almost 
thirty years before, appeared in Rip Van Winkle, an adaptation 
made especially for Jefferson by Dion Boucicault. 25 In addition 
to the simple statement to the effect that his Rip was ". . . one 
of the most finished performances of which it is possible to con- 
ceive," 26 Shakespeare's famous description of Cleopatra was also 
applied, with a change of pronoun: "It is needless to say that 
'age cannot wither nor custom stale his infinite variety.' " 27 

With regard to the hit plays on tour, perhaps the most popular 
during the decade 1870-1880 was Alphonse D'Ennery's The Two 
Orphans as adapted by J. Oxenford, a highly emotional and sen- 
sational play abounding in moral edification. The piece was first 
presented in Wilmington by the Clara Wildman Comedy Com- 
pany of New York on November 10, 11, and 13, 1875, and by 
Hall's Combination on November 15 of the same year. It was 
again offered on December 4, 1878, by the Helen D'Este Troupe. 



22 Daily Review, January 12, 1878. 

23 Morning Star, January IS, 1878. 
21 Daily Review, February 20, 1878. 
25 Daily Review, January 19, 1880. 
20 Daily Review, January 19, 1880. 
27 Morning Star, January 18, 1880. 




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The Professional Theater in Wilmington 323 

Another popular play, Married and Divorced, described as "the 
new Society Drama," 28 was given by the Wildman troupe on 
November 8-9, 1875, and the Hall Company on November 16 of 
the same year presented Boucicault's Led Astray, which had 
been a great success not only in America but in Paris, London, 
and Vienna. During the same season, Augustin Daly's Fifth 
Avenue Theatre Company gave Daly's Big Bonanza, a satirical 
comedy of manners, on February 2, 1876. On January 23, 1879, 
Leonard Grover appeared in his own comedy Our Boarding 
House, which, according to the advertisements, had run for over 
1,400 performances in New York. Although the latter play was 
well attended, the reviewer for the Morning Star the next day 
thought that some parts of it were "too broad for this locality." 

Finally, for the benefit of that portion of the theater-going 
public whose tastes ran neither to plays, operas, musical com- 
edies, nor concerts, the average season during 1870-1880 offered 
much in the way of minstrels, magic shows, panoramas, and 
variety. Of the minstrels, the hardiest perennials were Duprez 
and Benedict's, Skiff and Gaylord's, Calender's, Haverly's, and 
Mme. Rentz's Female Minstrels. The most persistent magician 
was Wyman, who had been appearing in Wilmington since ante- 
bellum days and who, after 1870, added the distribution of gifts 
during his performance. The Berger Family of Swiss bell ringers 
had also appeared before 1870 and continued through 1875, while 
such popular panoramas as McEvoy's Hibernicon, consisting of 
views of Ireland, and the Pilgrim's Progress Panorama con- 
tinued to draw crowds. Perhaps the two greatest attractions in 
the variety field, however, were the appearances on May 20, 1876, 
and May 20, 1877, of General Tom Thumb and his wife with a 
company of midgets, and of Buffalo Bill (W. F. Cody) on October 
25, 1875, October 4, 1878, and January 22, 1880, with his wild 
West plays featuring real Indians. 

The second decade of the survey witnessed a decided decrease 
in the number of stock companies and burlesque extravaganza 
troupes but an increase in the number of opera and concert com- 
panies, famous performers, and long-run plays on tour. Variety 



28 Daily Journal, November 10, 1876. 



324 The North Carolina Historical Review 

entertainment and minstrels continued with about the same de- 
gree of popularity as during the years 1870-1880. 

Only three stock companies offered the old and new favorites, 
the first being the Standard Dramatic Company, which opened 
on June 9, 1885, for thirteen performances and on the following 
August 31 for seven. During both engagements such popular 
melodramas as Under the Gas Light, Kathleen Mavourneen, The 
Two Orphans, Ten Nights in a Bar Room, and Fanchon the 
Cricket were well received. Beginning on January 24, 1887, the 
Louise Arnot Troupe presented one week of stock and was fol- 
lowed the next month on February 7 by the Cora Van Tassel 
Company, which stayed for a week and returned on May 16 for 
another week. 

In the field of burlesque and extravaganza, the Rentz-Santley 
Company appeared regularly through 1884 as did various Hump- 
ty Dumpty shows, but for the remainder of the decade the only 
burlesques were Zo-Zo, the Magic Queen, October 12-14, 1885, 
and November 15, 1888 ; Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa, November 
23, 1885 ; Early Birds, March 24, 1888 ; and Lilly Clay's Colossal 
Gaiety Company on April 7, 1888. 

After the popularity of H. M. S. Pinafore during 1879-1880, 
four other Gilbert and Sullivan light operas were well received 
in Wilmington, the first being The Pirates of Penzance, offered 
by the famous D'Oyly Carte London Opera Company on Febru- 
ary 9, 1881. At least one reviewer considered it better than 
Pinafore, 29 and in general it was admired. Patience was pre- 
sented by the Charles E. Ford English Opera Company on March 
23, 1882, but was not too successful : 'The music is bright, spark- 
ling, and delightful, but the piece is almost too subtle and deli- 
cately painted a composition to take with the general public." 30 
Iolanthe next appeared on March 7, 1883, a production of the 
Ford company, and the only objection in the press was that there 
were too many localized aspects of the satire for an American 
audience. 31 The last Gilbert and Sullivan production, The Mikado, 
made the greatest impression of all. It was first presented on 
October 19-20, 1885, by the New York Bijou Opera Company to 



20 Morning Star, February 10. 1881. 

80 Morning Star, March 24, 1882. 

81 Morning Star, March 8, 1883. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 325 

the largest audience of the season. The opera was equally well 
received when offered the next year on January 18-19 by the 
John Templeton Company with the original New York cast, and 
again by the Bijou Company on May 18 of the same year. An- 
other very popular opera was Audran's La Mascotte, which was 
given on January 16, 1883, by Gorman's German Opera Com- 
pany; on May 27, 1885, by the Bijou Company; and on May 19, 
1886, by the same group. Light opera was, in fact, becoming so 
popular that the Crescent Opera Company of New York even 
risked a summer engagement during July 16-24, 1888, to coincide 
with the encampment of twenty-seven companies of the State 
Guard at Camp Latimer on Wrightsville Sound, July 18-26. 82 

Among the more famous concert artists visiting Wilmington 
during the decade were Blind Tom, April 1-2 and November 30, 
1881, and October 2, 1884; Minnie Hauk, prima donna of London 
and New York, October 18, 1883; the Theodore Thomas Sym- 
phony Orchestra, December 6, 1883 ; Edouard Remenyi, violinist, 
February 20, 1884 ; and the Mendelssohn Quintette Club of Bos- 
ton, April 21, 1884, January 13, 1887, and January 13, 1888. The 
appearance of Charles Dickens, son of the novelist, on the after- 
noon of March 24, 1888, with readings from his father's works 
should also be mentioned. 

The number of great performers with well established reputa- 
tions increased during the second decade. The first of these was 
Ernesto Rossi, who appeared before a packed house on December 
19, 1881, in the role of Othello. 33 He was described as an actor 
"of massive frame and commanding presence" with a voice 
"sonorous and well modulated" and movements "dignified, state- 
ly, self-possessed." 34 We are told, further, that towards the end 
of the play, after Desdemona's death, ". . . the most terrible, 
agonizing remorse sweeps over him with fearful power, crushes 
his heart, and impels him to the fatal end. . . . We feel, when the 
curtain falls, that we have seen Othello — not acted but living." 35 
The next celebrity was Joseph Jefferson, who returned on Janu- 
ary 14, 1884, as Bob Acres in The Rivals, with Mrs. John Drew 
in the role of Mrs. Malaprop. The performance was described 



38 Wilmington Messenger, July 14, 1888. 
M Daily Review, December 20, 1881. 
34 Morning Star, December 20, 1881. 
88 Morning Star, December 20, 1881. 



326 The North Carolina Historical Review 

as "the most enjoyable that has been here for years," 36 and after 
the play a reception was given for the company by members of 
the old Thalian Association in the Mayor's Room at the City 
Hall. 37 Within the same month, on January 30, Mme. Helena 
Modjeska, famous Polish actress, supported by Maurice H. Bar- 
rymore, appeared as Viola in Twelfth Night, and one reviewer 
stated that "she throws her heart and soul into the piece, and 
holds her audience completely under her sway from the beginning 
to the end of the performance. . . . Her success was most tri- 
umphant." 38 

Later in the decade Frederick Warde, English actor, appeared 
on March 22-23, 1887, in Virginius and Galba, the Gladiator, 
and on January 30, 1888, in Damon and Pythias, at the conclusion 
of which we are informed that the audience was "so touched by 
his pathos, so imbued with his tragic impersonations, that it was 
too overcome to applaud!" 39 Similarly, on October 4, 1887, Mrs. 
D. P. Bowers was well received in Queen Elizabeth, and Mme. 
Janauschek returned on October 23, 1888, in Macbeth to carry 
her audience back to the old days "before catch-penny shows 
were known; when stately characters were impersonated by 
imposing figures." 40 On the next evening she appeared with equal 
success in Meg Merrilies, adapted from Guy Mannering. 

Among the greatly increased number of hit plays on tour, the 
first two, Child of the State, adapted by George Hoey from 
D'Ennery, and Diplomacy, adapted by Saville and Bolton Rowe 
from Sardou's Dora, were given on October 3-4, 1881, by the 
Hoey Company, which advertised the first production as "the 
most powerful melodrama of the day" and the second as "the 
greatest play of the day." Both plays received high commenda- 
tion, especially Diplomacy, which was found to be a "strong, 
ingenious, and admirable play, presented by the best company 
that has appeared here in years." 41 These were followed on Janu- 
ary 12, 1882, by Forget Me Not, the London success of Herman 
Merivale and F. C. Grove, with Genevieve Ward in the leading 
role, and on January 30 by John T. Raymond in his three hundred 



36 Morning Star, January 15, 1884. 

37 Morning Star, January 15, 1884. 

38 Morning Star, January 31, 1884,. 
30 Messenger, January 31, 1888. 

<° Messenger, October 24, 1888. 
a Morning Star, October 5, 1881. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 327 

and thirtieth performance of A. C. Gunter's Fresh, the American, 
which was considered a poor play saved by a good comedian. 42 
Within a week, on February 6-7, the Collier Union Square Com- 
pany offered Bronson Howard's The Banker's Daughter, adver- 
tised as having had the longest run on record — over 1,000 per- 
formances — with a return engagement on October 16-17, 1885. 
On March 7, 1882, the Madison Square Company No. 2 also ad- 
vertised the longest run on record — nearly 1,500 performances — 
for Steele MacKaye's Hazel Kirke. Although the acting of Miss 
Gilbert in the role of Hazel was admired, the play itself was 
not considered outstanding. 43 The same company returned within 
the year on October 6-7 with Hazel Kirke and a new hit, Frances 
Hodgson Burnett's Esmeralda, which had had 350 performances 
in New York. The two pieces were repeated at matinee and 
evening performances on the following December 22, and Es- 
meralda alone was offered the next year on November 14. 

Other long-run productions were W. E. Barnes' Only a Farm- 
er's Daughter, with over 1,500 performances, on September 18, 
1883, and March 29, 1886 ; Article Jft, adapted by Augustin Daly 
from Belot, with over 1,000 performances in Paris and 500 in New 
York, on October 8, 1883 ; Henry A. Jones and Henry Herman's 
The Silver King, which had played in London for three years, on 
March 14, 1885, for matinee and evening ; and Erma the Elf on 
March 26, 1890, with the indefatigable Katie Putnam, who ad- 
vertised that she had played the title role over 1,000 times in 
the United States and Australia. After an absence of fourteen 
years, she received "an ovation which was not only genuine and 
sincere but sympathetic and touching." 44 

During the last decade of the century, all of the previously 
noted types of entertainment continued to be offered, but there 
was a decided increase in the number of star performers, hit 
plays on tour, and stock companies, with a decrease in the num- 
ber of concert performances. One entirely new type of entertain- 
ment was the sensational melodrama which depended largely 
upon elaborate scenic and mechanical effects for its success, a 
development resulting partly from the new use of electricity, with 



42 Af orning Star, January 31, 1882. 
« Morning Star, March 8, 1882. 
44 Morning Star, March 27, 1890. 



328 The North Carolina Historical Review 

which Wilmington had been supplied in 1886. Typical of these 
plays were the following which were offered successively on 
December 22, 23, and 24, 1891, by different companies : The Pay 
Train, which displayed the wrecking of the train and explosion 
of the engine ; 45 Our Country Cousin, advertising The Great Rail- 
road Scene and Steamboat on the Ohio Scene; and The Tivo 
Sisters, which announced new and special scenery, including the 
Union Square Hotel, Central Park, and "New York City from 
the housetops, showing Brooklyn Bridge in the distance." Other 
typical thrillers were The Waifs of Neiv York, March 28, 1892, 
which included in the last act a "fire scene exhibiting a genuine 
steam engine at work" ; 46 Uncle's Darling, January 11, 1893, with 
a setting in Alaska including glaciers, a snow storm, Eskimo 
dogs, three trained bears, and two St. Bernard dogs, one of 
which ". . . caught the Villain' by the throat and drowned him 
at a critical moment" ; 47 and The Operator, September 10, 1894, 
with a shipwreck, a tropical scene, and a railroad wreck. 48 At 
the beginning of the decade these spectacles were at least tol- 
erated by the reviewers, but by 1895 the novelty was beginning to 
wear off, with the result that plays which depended too greatly 
upon scenic effects for their success were censured. For example, 
The Span of Life, September 30, 1895, was condemned because 
it was said that ". . . the show throughout is like a dime novel 
illustrated" and that ". . . the scenery was shoved on the audience 
to shield the weakness of the play, but didn't suffice." 49 Such 
criticism continued until the end of the decade. 

Similar to the companies offering melodramas, the musical 
comedy troupes also introduced more and more elaborate scenic 
effects after the introduction of electricity, and they continued 
to be numerous throughout the decade. The most popular were 
Breezy Time, November 4, 1891, October 21, 1895, and March 30, 
1899 ; Starlight, January 16, 1892, and October 21, 1892 ; Wang, 
April 2, 1894, April 5, 1895, and April 24, 1896 ; and John Philip 
Sousa's El Capitan, March 28, 1899. 

There were only four performances of concert music during 
the decade: Edouard Remenyi, January 1, 1894; the United 



45 Messenger, December 23, 1891. 

46 Messenger, March 29, 1892. 

47 Messenger, January 12, 1893. 

48 Messenger, September 11, 1894. 
40 Morning Star, October 1, 1896. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 329 

States Marine Band with Mme. Romia, prima donna, on March 
30, 1895 ; Signorina Nice Moreska, soprano, on October 17, 1895 ; 
and Mme. Sofia Scalchi, contralto, on October 26, 1897. 

The first of the star performers to appear during the last 
decade was Alberta Gallatin, who offered Romeo and Juliet with 
Creston Clarke on January 21, 1891, and As You Like It on the 
next evening. During the following week, on January 28, Alex- 
ander Salvini appeared in the title role of D'Ennery's Don Caesar 
de Bazan, and he returned four years later on March 18, 1895, 
in Dumas's The Three Guardsmen. Next, Mme. Janauschek re- 
turned on January 30, 1892, in Augustus Thomas's The Harvest 
Moon and was followed by Robert Downing on February 13 and 
September 9, 1893, in Richard the Lion Hearted and on January 
30, 1895, in two short plays David Garrick and French Marriage. 
Mme. Modjeska returned on January 11, 1894, and with her for 
the first time in Wilmington was Otis Skinner, who played Shy- 
lock to her Portia in The Merchant of Venice, a performance 
which was described as "a marvel and a revelation." 50 Four years 
later Skinner returned alone on January 18, 1898, in Prince 
Rudolph and again on January 25 of the next year in Rosemary, 
a hit play by Murray Carson and Louis Parker. 

Other star performers appearing in Wilmington during the 
prosperous nineties included Richard Mansfield on January 29, 

1894, in Beau Brummell, in which he was received with "nothing 
less than an ovation," 51 and on January 8 of the next year in 
A Parisian Romance. He was followed the next month on Febru- 
ary 18 by Robert Mantell in D'Ennery's Monbars, in which he 
was said to be "handsome, of commanding figure, and his ex- 
pression perfect." 52 Later in the same year, on December 19, 

1895, Minnie Maddern Fiske appeared in The Queen of Liars, an 
adaptation by Harrison G. Fiske from Daudet, and she ". . . 
proved her right ... to the title of the greatest emotional actress 
on the American stage." 53 The star performer who made the 
greatest number of visits to Wilmington during the nineties, 
however, was Lewis , Morrison, whose role of Mephisto in an 
adaptation of Goethe's Faust became quite famous. The elaborate 



M Messenger, January 12, 1894. 
51 Messenger, January 30, 1894. 
69 Morning Star, February 19, 1895. 
63 Morning Star, December 20. 1896. 



330 The North Carolina Historical Review 

production with unusual electrical scenic effects was first pre- 
sented on March 28, 1896, at which time the staging of the play- 
was described as "something bordering on the sublime," especial- 
ly the apotheosis scene of the last act. 54 Morrison returned in the 
same role on November 29, 1897, and November 18, 1898. On 
October 21, 1899, he appeared in Frederick the Great and again 
in Faust on February 21, 1900. Finally, a small constellation of 
stars made brilliant the production of The Winter's Tale on 
November 4, 1899, with Louis James, Kathryn Kidder, and 
Charles B. Hanford. 

Among the better known long-run hit plays that came to Wil- 
mington during the nineties was Frances H. Burnett's Little 
Lord Fauntleroy on November 22, 1890, for a Saturday matinee 
starring Ada Fleming, child actress, as Fauntleroy. Another 
child actress who made a great impression was Irene Franklin, 
who played with A. S. Lipman in Augustus Thomas's The Burglar, 
which first appeared on March 12, 1892, and returned on Novem- 
ber 14, 1893, and November 28, 1894. Steele Mackaye's Paul 
Kauvar with Porter J. White also appeared for a Saturday 
matinee on October 8, 1892, and was described as ". . . by odds the 
finest put upon the stage in this city for years." 55 Also well re- 
ceived were Henry C. De Mille's and David Belasco's Men and 
Women on January 30, 1893; De Mille's Lost Paradise on Sep- 
tember 25, 1895; Sir Charles Young's Jim, the Penman, which 
had run three years in London and one season in New York, on 
September 7, 1896, with F. C. Bangs ; Augustin Daly's A Night 
Off on February 28, 1898 ; and Charles Hoyt's A Stranger in New 
York on January 16, 1899. During the last season at the turn 
of the century, which ran from September 1, 1899, to June 2, 
1900, with 108 performances at the Opera House, four hit plays 
were offered : H. Gratton Donnelly's Darkest Russia with Kath- 
erine Willard on November 1 ; A Runaway Girl by the Augustin 
Daly Musical Company on January 17 ; Hoyt's A Texas Steer on 
February 19 with Katie Putnam, Wilmington's long-standing 
favorite; and Charles W. Chase's dramatization of Quo Vadis 
on March 14. 



«* Morning Star, March 29, 189ft. 
86 M<n»enger. October 9. 1802. 



The Professional Theater in Wilmington 331 

In conclusion, notice must be made of the smaller stock com- 
panies which shared with the minstrels, magicians, and others 
in supplying most of the steady entertainment between the ap- 
pearances of star performers and hit plays. During the last five 
years of the decade the number of these companies greatly in- 
creased, and all of them had certain features in common. In the 
first place, engagements were always by the week, during which 
the hard-working actors would offer eight performances, in- 
cluding matinees on Wednesday and Saturday, with a change 
of bill every day, although frequently one or two plays were re- 
peated within the week. Most of the presentations were melo- 
dramas of some vintage, but a few companies also attempted 
musical comedy and light opera. Prices of admission for the 
companies offering plays were always 10, 20, 30, and 50 cents, 
while the musical productions demanded 15, 25, 35, and 50 cents, 
and usually both types of entertainment drew packed houses. 
During the last five years of the decade, fifteen companies ap- 
peared regularly on their annual tours of the circuits, the most 
popular being the Mable Paige, the Wilbur-Kirwin, and Rent- 
frow's. The last performance given during the period covered 
by this survey was, in fact, the bill of the Lyceum Stock Com- 
pany on Saturday, June 2, 1900, when, characteristically, East 
Lynne was presented at the matinee and Ten Nights in a Bar 
Room in the evening. For the performances the newspaper ad- 
vertisements stated: "Ladies free when accompanied by the 
holder of a paid 30 cents ticket." 



THE EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE OF JOSEPH GALES 

1786-1794 

By W. H. G. Armytage 

October 22, 1799, marked a historic occasion ; for on that date 
Joseph Gales established the Raleigh Register. Its place at the be- 
ginning of the story of the partisan press in North Carolina is 
generally acknowledged. 1 So vigorous was its tone that William 
Boylan of the Minerva was drawn to move his paper from Fay- 
etteville to Raleigh in order to come to closer grips with such a 
formidable antagonist. The grips were more than metaphorical ; 
for, meeting in the street one day, the two editors began to fight. 
That Gales should not only sue Boylan for damages, but win, and 
then give the money to the Raleigh Academy (after paying coun- 
sel's fees) is typical of the man. He was always on the weather 
side of the law. 

He had reason to be. His political graduation was undergone 
in a hard school, where a false move might have meant death 
or transportation. Some idea of the hardship he underwent in 
coming to America has been graphically presented by the publica- 
tion of his diary for the years 1794-95, edited for this journal by 
William S. Powell. 2 This paper proposes to take the story back by 
another eight years and present the story of the first newspaper 
he edited, its importance, its significance, and the part it played 
in the formation of his own opinions. 

The twenty-five-year-old master printer and book-binder who 
came to Sheffield in 1786 3 was no ordinary person. He had taught 
school with his father at Eckington, 4 run away from Manchester 
with half a crown in his pocket when apprenticed to a cruel mas- 
ter, learnt topography at Newark under a master of the trade, 5 



1 William K. Boyd, History of North Carolina, 52-53; Clarence S. Brigham, History and 
Bibliography of American Newspapers. II, 774. 

8 "The Diary of Joseph Gales, 1794-1795," The North Carolina Historical Review, XXVI 
<July. 1949). 335-347. 

3 I have examined the Rate Books of the town and find the earliest mention of Joseph Gales 
on May 15, 1786. The entry reads "Joseph Gales . . . 14/—." 

* Thomas Gales (1736-1809) was parish clerk and schoolmaster of the village of Eckington, 
then virtually owned by the Sitwell family. 

6 There is a conflict of opinion as to whether this was Roll or Tomlinson, Joseph Hunter 
(1783-1861) the famous antiquary, a native of Sheffield who knew Gales, says in his privately 
printed autobiography that it was Holl. James Montgomery (1771-1854), who became Gales'6 
clerk, says it was J. Tomlinson. I incline to the latter view, since I think that Holl is 
a mistranscription of Holt (Daniel Holt was the publisher of the Newark Herald, who was 
tried for sedition in November, 1793, having published some writings of Thomas Paine) and 

[332] 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 333 

and married a novelist who was connected with the peerage. 6 He 
took a shop in the Hartshead, near the centre of the town, and set 
up a stationer's and printer's establishment. Being a Unitarian 
of liberal sympathies, he found himself in a society which drew 
out his best efforts. Within a year he had worked to such effect 
that he made a name in the town. 

There was plenty of scope. New industries, like the manufac- 
ture of "Sheffield Plate" (commenced by Joseph Hancock in 
1761), hard polished scissors (begun by Robert Hinchcliffe in 
the same year), and metal refining (introduced by John Read 
four years later) , had begun to give the products of the town an 
air of taste and character. The stage coach had almost worn 
grooves to London in its twenty-five years' existence. Benjamin 
Huntsman had opened new vistas to craftsmen by his perfection 
of crucible steel. The town began to wake up to its growing power 
and wealth. A public coffee room was opened at the Angel, a boys' 
charity school was established, workers benefit societies were 
openly discussed, and a grand musical festival was held in the 
town for the first time in 1769. 7 

For all this, there was but one newspaper, and that an indif- 
ferent one. Established in the same year as Huntsman had begun 
to pour his crucible steel, it was published by William Ward and 
was called The Sheffield Public Advertiser. It did no more than 
its name suggests. Like its predecessors, The Sheffield Weekly 
Journal (founded in 1754 to die soon after) and the Sheffield 
Weekly Register and Doncaster Flying Post (founded by Revil 
Homfray a year later) , it lived by advertising patent medicines 
of a type which today would raise a smile, discreet nursing homes 
where children could be delivered, the names of runaway appren- 
tices, and public apologies. With the signing of peace with 
America, which gave "general satisfaction" to the town, the es- 
tablishment of forges for the manufacture of Shear steel, and 
the erection of the first steam engine for grinding in place of the 
immemorial water wheels, times were ripe for a change. That 

J. Tomlinson was very active typographically. Tomlinson published a Book of Common Prayer 
with engravings and woodcuts in 1778 and a History of Civil Wars in Germany 1630-5 four 
years later, but was sufficiently in sympathy with the reformers to publish Cartwright's 
Labrador Journals. 

9 Winifred Marshall, author of Lady Emma Mel-combe, based on her relationship to Lord 
Melbourne. 

7 For' a general picture of Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century, see the book of that name 
published by R. E. Leader, another famous Sheffield newspaper editor, a century later. 



334 The North Carolina Historical Review 

change was symbolised by the appearance of the first number of 
the Sheffield Register on June 8, 1787. It contained an imagina- 
tive editorial by Gales himself in which he declared : 

a newspaper may be compared to a reservoir of water ; for as the 
latter receives the bountiful springs of nature from all around it, 
and distributes its fertilising streams to supply the surrounding 
country, so does the former receive its numerous articles of in- 
formation . . . and forms a link in the vast chain which connects 
mankind with each other. We see displayed, as in a mirror, the 
patriotism of one man and the intrepedity of another, the mag- 
nanimity of a third, and the generosity and humanity of a fourth, 
and thus discover perfection which exalts our species and stimu- 
lates us to follow their example 

Gales' partner in this enterprise was an engraver named David 
Martin. 8 They did not act as partners in any other sense of the 
word. Gales lived and kept up his establishment in the Hartshead, 
while Martin lived and worked at Norfolk Street. Their partner- 
ship lasted for only a year, during which time they also managed 
to produce the first really satisfactory directory of the town, with 
such an excellent frontispiece that it was reprinted in facsimile 
by S. 0. Addy a century later. 9 In this directory Gales himself 
appears on page 59, described as a "bookseller, stationer, print- 
seller, auctioneer, and agent of the Royal Exchange Fire Office." 
To these offices he was not above adding that of vendor of patent 
medicines, since the credulity of the public on these subjects was, 
if anything, greater than it is today. 

His auctioneering seems to have been most successful. Since 
it taught him to use his voice, to manage large crowds, to obtain 
insights into men's motives, and to learn the practical politics of 
the town, it was undoubtedly a major factor in his political grad- 
uation. For a young man not yet thirty, he was very busy. Scarce- 
ly a week passed but he was selling messuages, houses, building 
land, church pews, or household effects. To these sales he could 
give the fullest publicity in the columns of his own newspaper, 
with descriptions of the property sold that provide a rich quarry 



8 David Martin, engraver, of Norfolk Street had good taste, as the title page of the Shef- 
field Register shows. On June 30, 1791, he published six engravings of Sheffield. He also 
edited the Flora BrittavJca, of which twenty numbers appeared. He later eraiG'ratod, and put 
an end to his life in a fit of depression. Local Notes and Qucri&n. V, 19. 

9 GaZe*' and Martins Directory of ShaffiiJd^ edited^ with an introduction and notes by 8. O. 
Addy (Paw3on and Brailatoni, StogicM. 1?39). Thu is u&ereU a tcpltea. o* the original 
version puttuiaxj in 17S7 with a thari intyoduclkjo which <Joec nut odd niucb to our knowledge 
erf oithci. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 335 

for the civic historian bent on discovering the urbanization of 
Sheffield. 

With his own waxing prosperity rose the prestige of his paper. 
Just how successful it was, may be gauged by the anguished 
jeers and taunts of the rival Advertiser, which, a day behind with 
the news, challenged Gales to reveal how he managed to obtain 
the London news before the London stage arrived. Gales con- 
tented himself with oracular remarks like that of September 1, 
1787: "we receive the Thursdays' papers TEN HOURS before 
the mail coach arrives/' A fortnight later he was crowing that 
he was able to print an account of events at least twenty-four 
hours later than the Advertiser could afford to. The policy evi- 
dently paid, for by October he was expanding his staff by taking 
on two additional journeymen binders. 

As a publisher he became the catalyst of a literary set in the 
town, accelerating their reactions to the world by affording them 
an outlet for their compositions. Some of those to whom his 
patronage was extended in this way became famous. Ebenezer 
Rhodes 10 published some of his verse in the Register as early as 
October 11. 1788. He and Gales were much of an age and often 
met at the Bull Inn in the Wicker, together with other choice 
spirits like Sylvester 11 and Nansom 12 This became the Sheffield 
Mermaid, and was nicknamed "Billy Hill's Parlour ." Gales also 
branched out as a book publisher too, the first of note in the town 
since the legendary Neville Simmons of a century before. 13 For, 
like Simmons, Gales was a symptom of a resurgence of urban 
culture in Sheffield. Writers of some national consequence, like 
Charles Dibden, the famous composer of nautical songs, sent 
their works to him. Gales published The Musical Tour of Mr. 
Dibden, in which, previous to his embarkation for India, he 
finished his career as a public character. This, a bulky quarto 
volume of 400 pages, appeared in 1788. Dibden, who had stayed at 
Eckington with Gales' parents, wrote of Joseph on pace 200 : "I 



w Ebenezer Rhodes, 1762-18-39, later published a drama Alfred, treading the stare as the hero. 
He had an eye for the scenic beauties of Derbyshire, and in 1818-21 published Peak Scenery, 
which he got the well-known engravers Hofland, Chantrey, Thompson, and BJoro to illustrate. 
Though a man of substance (he became Master Cutler), he spent oo much oi his ti;ne and 
energy In literary pursuits that. he went bankrupt. 

11 Charier. Sylvester, though uneducated, taught bim?elf the principles of galvanism with 
such success that he was able to teach others in Sheffield. HI? lectures were published in 
1804. R. E- Leader, Eeminiacences of Old Sheffield (Sheffield. 137(3), 317-518. 

12 On the authority of John Wilson, The Sowcv of Jo&crfi Mather (Sheffield, 1852), G5u. 

13 Gilee Hester, Neville jSimmoes (Sheffield, 1838), iUufi.r&Uss how £.ru»Dna was al»ie to 
publish tlie works otf the nonconformist divined who clustered round Sheffield in the days oi 
▲ttercliffc Academy. 



336 The North Carolina Historical Review 

do not know how soon my friend Gales may make a fortune, 
which ultimately must inevitably happen if unwearied industry 
and fair dealing, the world's regard, and a well stocked head as 
well as shop, are the materials to procure it." 

There were other productions, less substantial but just as im- 
portant, which issued from his press. One of them, significant 
from the later development of Gales' own ideas, was a small 
volume, Historical Facts relating to the Revolution, published to 
mark the centenary year of that apocalypse in Whig history. All 
reformers begin by presenting their hopes for the future under 
the guise of a reassessment of the past, and Gales was no excep- 
tion. For him the responsibilities of property should not be ob- 
scured by its privileges. Locke's gloss on the events of 1688 
seemed to Gales to be worth recalling to his own generation. 
Five years later he published in his Register sl History of a 
Church and a Warming Pan, following it up the following year 
with Thoughts on Civil Government: addressed to the Disfran- 
chised Citizens of Sheffield. 1 * 

Such political ideas were to be sharpened by the events at the 
turn of the decade, events which were to bring home to Gales' 
readers the misfortune of their situation. The first exacerbating 
event was that of "The Thirteens." It concerned the journeymen 
cutlers, who from time immemorial had kept the odd materials 
left over from their stipulated dozen. This practice led to masters 
demanding that the men should make thirteen for the price of a 
dozen, and the men's resentment was concentrated upon the man 
who in 1787 was the master cutler, Jonathan Watkinson. Put to 
words by Mather and printed as a broadsheet, a song sprang to 
the lips of every workman so affected. As Mather sang truly : 

The boys at the playhouse exhibit strange scenes 
Respecting big Watkinson and his thirteens 
for his chorus 

And may the odd knife his great carcase dissect, 
Lay open his vitals for men to inspect, 

v Thia interpretation of the "Great Revolution" was, of course, to color much of the 
historiography and political thinking in England for the next three quarters of a century. 
For a general discussion of this trend see H. Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History 
(London, 1931). 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 337 

A heart full as black as the infernal gulph, 

In that greedy, blood-sucking, bone-scraping wolf. 15 

The song was popularly held to have broken Watkinson's heart. 
Words were the prelude to action. At the beginning of 1790 the 
workmen in the various cutlery trades asked for rises. The mas- 
ters, harder collectively than Watkinson was individually, re- 
fused to meet the men's claims. The scissors manufacturers in 
August of that year decided to prosecute the leaders of the strike. 
The master cutler at the time of the prosecution of the men's 
leaders was George Wood, a scissors manufacturer of Pea-Croft. 
Gales reported the combination of the masters in his Register on 
the twenty-seventh of the month, and their common subscription 
to prosecution of the men. Mather wrote two more scurrilous 
songs, this time with George Wood as the central figure. 

This Hallamshire Haman keeps blacks at command, 
To spread his dire mandates throughout the whole land, 
Together they meet and their malice combine 
To form a most hellish, infernal design. 
On malice, on mischief, on tyrrany bent, 
Five poor honest grinders to prison they sent; 
Though nothing they had of these men to complain, 
But not paying discount for wearing a chain. 16 

This bad feeling between master and man was further aggra- 
vated by events of the following year, when the ordinary people 
of Sheffield suffered one of the biggest blows in their history. 
Having already lost their racecourse with a thousand acres of 
common land to the Marquis of Rockingham and other occupiers 
twelve years before, they now stood to lose another six thousand 
acres more by enclosures. 17 Indeed, the act which passed through 
Parliament and received royal assent in 1791 deprived the ex- 
panding industrial town of its lungs, the green and pleasant 
Rivelin Valley, Hallam Moors, and village greens of Brookhouse, 
Heeley, Newfield, and Owlerton. Not one acre of all this was 
allotted for any public purpose. It was worse than any previous 
enclosure act, not only in extent, but in its character, for it en- 
acted that "all encroachments which shall have been made upon 
the said commons and waste grounds within the memory of man 



15 Joseph Mather (1737-1804), a file hewer who was born and remained in one of the poorest 
class in Sheffield, sang most of his songs in ale-houses and would sell prints of them by riding 
through the town on a donkey. They were collected and edited as Songs of Joseph Mather 
with a critical memoir by John Wilson in 1862. This occurs on page 63 of that edition. 

16 Songs of Joseph Mather, 82. 

17 For full details see the article by Barbara Hammond in Economic History, vol. II, no. 6 
(London, January, 1931). 



338 The North Carolina Historical Review 

shall be deemed part of the commons and waste lands to be di- 
vided and enclosed." 

The act received royal assent on June 6, 1791, and Sheffielders 
seemed to realize what was afoot only when advertisements began 
to appear in Gales' paper that commissioners would be sitting to 
hear appeals against the proposed enclosures. Stung with the 
realization that they were being robbed, they marched in a body 
to protest to the Duke of Norfolk's agent Vincent Eyre, and the 
local vicar and justice of the town, the Reverend James Wilkin- 
son. These two, taking counsel with the master cutler, decided to 
write to the Home Office. So dangerous were the times that their 
letter could not be sent express. But though it travelled down to 
London slowly, its contents were urgent: 

Considerable bodies of disorderly people in this neighbourhood 
have lately several times assembled in considerable force with the 
riotous intention of preventing the Commissioners . . . from doing 
their duty, and not only drove them from the commons near this 
town intended to be enclosed, but also menaced them with the 
greatest personal danger if they attempt to proceed with this 
enclosure. 18 

The Home Office response was to send military aid, but the 
soldiers were not quick enough to prevent the mob from attacking 
Vicar Wilkinson's opulent mansion at Broom Hall, burning eight 
ricks and his library and firing the house. The same night (July 
28) they had broken Eyre's windows and were prevented from 
doing further damage only by the arrival of some troops. The 
outrage had two important effects. It scared Vicar Wilkinson 
(who had at one time a great sympathy for the proposals to re- 
form parliament) 19 so much that even a year later Colonel de 
Lancey, reporting to the Home Office, described the Vicar as 
avoiding "the many profligate people" in Sheffield. 20 The other 
consequence was that a barracks began to rise to house a force 
of 200 cavalry. 21 This was an affront to the more law-abiding 
which was to have further repercussions. 



18 Home Office Papers, Public Record Office, London. Quoted by Barbara Hammond in 
Economic History, vol. II, no. 6. 

19 Gales, reporting events in the Sheffield Register, specifically states that the outrages 
occurred as the commissioners were attempting to mark the boundaries of the enclosure. For 
Wilkinson's previous interest in the reforming movement, especially in the work of the York- 
shire Association, see the Wyvill Papers, which are reprints of the letters and papers of the 
Rev. Christopher Wyvill, its mainspring and secretary. 

» Home Office Papers 42: 20. 

**■ The work began on July 27, 1792, on a piece of gi-ound beyond Shalesmoor. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 339 

What part did Gales play in all this? Obviously as the publisher 
of a paper he could not write or publish articles which openly 
sympathised with the trouble-makers, especially as the leader 
selected for prosecution by the authorities was a poor half-witted 
young man named Bennett, who was executed for his share in the 
riot. But Gales did report the outrages and their cause. He also 
published, in other columns, extracts from the works of Dr. 
Priestley and James Mackintosh, 22 both of them speculative phi- 
losophers whose opinions were most radical for the times. Gales 
also indulged in a certain oblique criticism by the very nuances 
of his style ; the implications of his news penetrated far deeper 
than a direct assault on the understanding would have done. 

So the Sheffield Register began to assume the character of a 
vehicle of ideas, which Gales sowed assiduously. Quoting with 
approval Mackintosh's dictum that "diffused knowledge im- 
mortalises itself," Gales began to throw his weight on the side of 
the Sunday School movement which was gathering way in the 
town, remarking at the same time that the official view of the 
government was that "the peasantry of this country will derive 
more solid advantage from the plough and the spade than they 
ever could from the horn-book and the primmer." 23 The enact- 
ment of the great political drama on the other side of the channel 
provided him with much copy on the rights (as opposed to the 
duties) of man. Indeed, his own interest in the promotion of 
education was sufficient to let his precious columnar space be 
occupied from October 22, 1790, to April 30, 1791, by Samuel 
Catlow's philosophic arguments for a better system of popular 
instruction. 24 

Perhaps one of the greatest political impulses to Gales' own 
growing radicalism was the proximity of the ex-secretary of the 
American Committee of Foreign Affairs, Tom Paine. The latter, 
absorbed in his invention for an iron bridge, had left America 
in 1787 to promote it in England. Naturally enough he came to 



22 Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) who in Julv, 1791, suffered the burning of his books, papers, 
and apparatus by a crowd which resented his attendance at a dinner to celebrate the fall 
of the Bastile, given by the Birmingham Constitutional Society. James Mackintosh (1765-1832) 
was also a sympathizer with the aims of the French Revolution and published his Vindiciae 
GaWcae in 1791. 

23 Sheffield Register, July 27, 1791. 

24 This Gales also later republished as a small book, Observations on a Course of Instruc- 
tion for Young Persons in the Middle Classes of Life, by Samuel Catlmv, conductor of a 
litarary and commercial seminary at Mansfield. Catlow's idea of associating important ideas 
with ordinary things, without the formality of precept or the labor of study, forms a striking 
anticipation of what the Edpreworths were to amplify seven years later in their Practical 

Education. 



340 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Masborough, near Sheffield, where the great ironfounding firm 
of Walkers were capable of implementing his designs, and did. 
With such a radical luminary near him, it was but natural that 
Gales himself should begin to burn, and since Paine was actually 
publishing his Rights of Man in 1790, Gales opened up the col- 
umns of the Sheffield Register for sympathetic quotation and 
even published a sixpenny reprint for popular reading. Other 
reformers were also quoted in support of Paine's central thesis, 
especially Dr. Price (an intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin 
who had been invited by Congress in 1778 to transfer himself to 
America) and Home Tooke (the one-eyed founder of the London 
Constitutional Society who was imprisoned in 1778 for publish- 
ing a resolution to raise a subscription for the American col- 
onists) . Needless to say, Burke was given short shrift. He was 
pilloried, accused of inconsistency, and discredited in the eyes of 
the Register's readers. 25 Not only France, but America too, was 
pointed out as the great exemplar to be followed, for early in his 
journalistic career Gales had written : "We place America fore- 
most in our history of great ones of the earth." 26 

In such a climate, and with such pressure behind him, Joseph 
Gales helped to form the Sheffield Society for Constitutional In- 
formation. With David Martin, his engraver friend and onetime 
partner in the editorship of the Register, Matthew Dodsworth, 
and James Horsfield, the society was launched in the midst of the 
troubles in 1791. So many remarks were passed, and such was 
the suspicion which the society aroused, that it was thought wise 
to issue a statement in the Sheffield Register of December 2, 
1791, in which the committee, expanded by another seven mem- 
bers, 27 declared: 

We are under the necessity of informing the public that the sole 
object of these societies is to throw their Mites, at some proper 
opportunity, towards restoring, by a peaceable Reform, a more 
equal Representation in the House of Commons (whenever the 
People of Property and Consequence shall think fit again to come 
forward) the necessity of which is too evident to require any 
elucidation, and too universally allowed, to require further proof. 

25 As in the Sheffield Register of November 19, 1790. 

26 Sheffield Register, December 1, 1787. 

27 William Carnage ( seci-etary ) , William Broomhead (secretary who succeeded Carnage), 
William Clarke, George Kent, Edward Oakes, Edward Smith, and Enoch Tricket. For ac- 
counts of the society see G. P. Jones, The Political Reform Movement in Sheffield, and J. 
Taylor, The Sheffield Constitutional Society in Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological 
Society, IV, 57-68, and V, 133-146 (Sheffield, 1937 and 1943, respectively). 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 341 

Gales himself seems to have written most of the notices for 
the society, just as he wrote their letters. 28 Yet, as far as the 
public were concerned, he was still the hard-working auctioneer. 
His timetable at the end of 1791, when the society was incubat- 
ing, shows him as busy as ever selling houses, lots, church pews, 
shares in the theatre, beds of coking coal, and the stocks in trade 
of a butcher's shop, a draper, and a circulating library. Such 
versatile salesmanship and ubiquity (for the auctions were held 
in different places) shows that his galvanic energy was not 
entirely absorbed. 

The society quickly made headway in the town. This was nat- 
ural enough, since it automatically became the residuary legatee 
of such reforming goodwill as survived the vicar's defection 
from the cause. There were at hand powerful men to give it 
support. Chief among these was Samuel Shore, thirty-four years 
older than Gales himself, a nonconformist steelmaster, whose 
connection with the cause of reform was further reinforced by 
his connection with Thomas Walker of Manchester. 29 Within 
three months Gales was publishing another journal in addition 
to the Sheffield Register. Called The Patriot, this new venture 
comprised thirty-six pages and sold at three pence a week to 
nourish the fervor of those who, like the members of the Sheffield 
Society, considered political information as vital. For, as the ad- 
vertisement ran: 

it has long been a matter of complaint that means of information 
on that most important science, POLITICS, and the various 
branches of philosophy connected with it, are entirely out of the 
reach the body of the people, from the very heavy expense attend- 
ing the purchase of the works of these eminent writers. 30 

"These eminent writers" were naturally Paine, Priestley, and 
Mackintosh. By printing excerpts from, and commentaries on 
them, the Patriot was to "open a channel of universal communi- 
cation at a price which is within reach of almost every individ- 
ual." 



28 See T. B. and T. J. Howell, A Complete Collection of State Trials (London, 1818), vol. 
XXV, col. 1119. 

28 For his trial "for a conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution and Government, and to aid 
and assist the French in case they should invade this Kingdom," see Howell, State Trials, 
vol. XXIII, cols. 1055-1166. For Samuel Shore's life, see the Sheffield Independent, November 
16, 1828. Thomas Walker was his brother-in-law. 

30 Sheffield Register, March 2, 1792. 



342 The North Carolina Historical Review 

They would meet at each others houses, or, if occasion war- 
ranted, at an alehouse where a larger audience could be secured. 
A quaker painter called Samuel Ashton (who later took out a 
patent for tanning leather) seems to have acted in some sort of 
convening capacity, but he was soon succeeded by Carnage, an 
inkstand maker, who took over more formal secretarial duties, 
inserted advertisements in the Register, and signed them. By 
March they were writing to London : "the whole neighbourhood 
for many miles around have an attentive eye upon us most of 
the towns and villages indeed are forming themselves into similar 
associations, and strictly adhere to the mode of copying after 
us." Home Tooke (to whom they had originally written, hoping 
to form a connection with the London Constitutional Society) 
recommended them to write to the London Corresponding So- 
ciety. 31 Their offered hand was not grasped by the London so- 
cieties as closely as it should have been. 

The little information we have of the organization of the 
society suggests that they took themselves very serious indeed. 
As their last secretary (William Broomhead) said : "We wished 
to produce by our meetings the enlightenment of the people; to 
show them the reason, the ground of all their complaints and 
sufferings; when a man works hard for thirteen or fourteen 
hours of the day, the week through, and is not able to maintain 
his family." 32 This educative work was carried out by cellular 
study groups which seemed to fuse into a general meeting once 
a month. Of their 2,000 members, most were grouped in this way. 
Their constitution reflects the kind of belief they had in equal 
representation : for the smallest cells (tithings) comprising ten 
members would each appoint a delegate: the delegates in turn 
were grouped in tens and appointed a further delegate as a repre- 
sentative on the committee. 33 



31 For the transcripts of the correspondence, see Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIV, col. 284; 
vol. XXV, col. 135. For the best history of the London Societies, see P. A. Brown, The 
French Revolution In English History (London, 1918). Brown comments that the connection 
between industrial change and political agitation emerges much more clearly in the Sheffield 
than in the London societies. 

32 Howell. State Trials, vol. XXIV, col. 630. 

33 Reports of the Committee of Secrecy of the House of Commons. The appendix contains 
much of the correspondence which is printed in Howell. These reports were issued in 1794, 
Howell's trials over twenty years later. The constitution does not seem to have been really 
put into practice according to G. P. Jones The Political Reform Movement in Sheffield, p. 60, 
but Gales certainly tried to ensure that it was attempted, for he printed a number of district 
books which were to be kept, in which were to be noted subscriptions of a penny a week. 
Broomhead, the last secretary, naturally tried to make light of the thorough organization 
of the society. See Howell State Trials, vol. XXIV, col. 611. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 343 

Gales became more heavily involved, and these political com- 
mitments and his own expanding business led him to insert an 
advertisement in the Register of March 2, 1792, for a clerk. 
"None need apply," it ran, "but such as have been used to book- 
keeping and can produce undeniable testimonials of character. 
Terms and specimens of writing to be left with the printer." He 
was very lucky. A twenty-one year old Moravian of literary 
tastes wrote a letter in large flourishing characters, impressing 
Joseph Gales so much that he was employed at once to go with 
Gales to sell the books of the Rev. John Bullock at Ashford-in- 
the-water, near Bakewell, on March 19. This was James Mont- 
gomery, whose facile pen, steady loyalty, and high sense of re- 
sponsibility were to earn him a place on the Gales's family tomb- 
stone. 34 

On April 3 of that year (1792) the first number of the Patriot 
came off Gales' press. It was edited by Matthew C. Brown, a 
barber turned advocate, who was to be a help to Gales in the next 
eighteen months. But it was a very inauspicious time to launch 
such a periodical — especially in Sheffield. The military entered 
the town on March 16 and on May 21 the government issued 
a proclamation against seditious writings. This was to precipi- 
tate Gales to the very forefront of the movement and render 
it impossible for him to weave policy behind the scenes. 35 

For this proclamation against seditious writings split the 
town even wider than before. A public meeting was convened 
to the Town Hall in order to vote thanks to the king for the issue 
of the proclamation. To the great majority of Sheffielders this 
savoured of kissing the rod and the meeting dissolved in uproar. 
Two days later a more exclusive meeting, pared of the popular 
element, unanimously resolved in the Cutlers' Hall "that an ad- 
dress be presented to His Majesty, expressive of thanks for his 
late Royal Proclamation against seditious writings, and that the 
meeting do esteem it their duty to give the utmost efficacy in 
their power to the said proclamation." 



34 John Holland and James Everett, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of James Mont- 
gomery (6 vols., London, 1856), contains numerous letters from the Gales family, especially 
the unmarried sisters whom Gales left behind him. 

36 The sanity and character of Gales's moderation may be seen from a pamphlet which he 
published at this time called Copy of the Duke of Richmond's letter on a Parliamentary 
Reform addressed to Lieut. Colonel Sharman with strictures on the British Constitutional 
Rights of the People (Sheffield, June, 1792), which pointed out that Pitt, who now pro- 
hibited discussion of parliamentary reform, subscribed to the views put forward at the 
Thatched House Tavern on May 16, ten years before, reprinted in this pamphlet! 



344 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The Cutlers' Hall meeting, by its very exclusiveness, drew a 
large crowd, which gathered outside and raised a row. Joseph 
Gales from his office in the Hartshead went to investigate. As 
soon as they saw him the crowd, which had been excluded from 
the meeting in the Cutlers' Hall, raised a great shout, and cried 
out for a meeting of their own in the Town Hall. Naturally 
enough they bore Gales along with them and put him in the chair. 
Gales lived up to the general tone of the Sheffield Constitutional 
Society. He counselled moderation, advised the audience not to 
be noisy or factious, and persuaded them to disband quietly and 
go home. The audience were delighted with him, and bore him 
back to his office in the Hartshead singing: 

God save great Thomas Paine, 
His Rights of Man to explain, 
To every soul, 
He makes the blind to see, 
What dupes and slaves they be, 
And points out Liberty, 
From Pole to Pole. 

Thousands cry "Church and King" 
That well deserve to swing, 
All must allow: 
Birmingham blush for shame, 
Manchester do the same, 
Infamous is your name, 
Patriots vow. 

Facts are seditious things, 
When they touch courts and kings, 
Armies are raised, 
Barracks and Bastilles built, 
Innocence charged with guilt, 
Blood most unjustly spilt, 
God stands amazed. 36 

It but added to the indignation of the "Church and King" party 
that the air to which these verses were sung was that of the 
National Anthem. 37 

Gales, by his courageous assumption of the chair on that oc- 
casion, was now saddled with the visible leadership of the Shef- 



36 Wilson, Songs of Joseph Mather. 66. 

37 Gales realized this and published a justification of his action in taking the chair in the 
Sheffield Register the following week. Some idea of the national currency which Mather's 
song obtained may be seen from M. A. Best, Thomas Paine, 261. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 345 

field Constitutional Society. The older reformers lamented their 
lost opportunities and Samuel Shore wrote to Wyvill: "We might 
have carried by numbers anything in favour of reform." 38 The 
pace of the Constitutional Society now began to quicken and 
Shore hesitated, thinking it "desired to go farther and faster than 
he approved." 39 They determined to make themselves known. 
They were encouraged by the successes of the French Revolution- 
ary armies. On November 23 five thousand or six thousand people 
paraded with banners, marched through the town, fired can- 
non, and roasted an ox, in order to show their high jubilation. 
Encouraged by such symptoms of popular support, the society 
began to raise subscriptions to defend the printers and authors 
of books, which might be considered seditious only by the ex- 
isting ministry. Such enthusiasm itself provoked a reaction 
amongst the more conservative elements in the town, who 
met at the Cutlers' Hall on the last day of the year and 
resolved to print and publish a declaration of profound satisfac- 
tion with things as they were, and especially "to the excellent 
form of government by King, Lords, and Commons, under 
which," as they unctuously observed, "we have the peculiar hap- 
piness to live." 40 

The dialectic had begun. To each effort by the Constitutional 
Society was opposed a counter effort by the Church and King 
party : to action was opposed reaction. The opening of 1793 saw 
the stage clearing and the main protagonists settling into their 
roles. In January the Constitutional Society circularized other 
societies, expressing their determination to persevere in favor of 
reform. They sent a letter of condolence to Thomas Walker, the 
Manchester reformer, who was having trouble with the authori- 
ties. 41 The declaration of war with France made sympathy with 
the Jacobins a treasonable offence, the imputations of which 
the town authorities were anxious to avoid so much that they 
paid Gales's rival publisher, William Ward, the sum of £10 : Is. 
: 9d to print bills and distribute them. These bills expressed 
sentiments of profound attachment to the present constitution, 



» WyviU Papers, V, 124. 

39 G. P. Jones, Tlie Political Reform. Movement in Sheffield, 61. 

40 The Local Register and Chronological Account of Occurences and Facts (Sheffield. 1830). 
72. 

a He was ultimately arrested on a charge of high treason : see Howell, State Trials, vol. 
XXIII. cols. 105&-1166. 



346 The North Carolina Historical Review 

and declared that any reform was both unnecessary and unwise. 42 
To such words the Constitutional Society replied. On April 
1 they summoned a meeting at the Bull and Mouth Inn "to con- 
sider upon a proper mode of petitioning the House of Commons 
on the subject of a Parliamentary Reform." Joseph Gales was 
in the chair. Under his guidance the meeting proceeded to ap- 
point a committee of twelve who were charged with the duty 
of assembling a public meeting ; and with the task of obtaining 
the Town Hall in which to hold it. 43 They succeeded in the first, 
and failed in the second. So, not being able to get the Town Hall 
(since the authorities still held by the tenor of the handbills 
which had just been distributed) they assembled on Castle Hill. 
Once more Gales was in the chair. This public meeting took place 
on April 8, 1793. All agreed that a reform of the system of par- 
liamentary representation was "necessarjr for the peace and hap- 
piness of the country," resolved to petition Parliament for "a 
thorough reform thereof," and endorsed the actions of the Shef- 
field Constitutional Society. 44 

The petition, engrossed on parchment, lay at the Hartshead 
in the office of Joseph Gales, who also printed a further 5,000 
copies for distribution in order that people should know what 
they were signing. Since it needed time to cajole the country folk 
to come in and sign, Gales allowed it to lie for nearly a month, 
in the meantime exhorting the readers of the Sheffield Register 
to come into town and sign. Under his chairmanship, the com- 
mittee "attended to the completion of the business." By April 18 
5,000 names were affiixed to the parchment master copy, and a 
further 3,000 signed before it was forwarded to the House of 
Commons- On May 6 the petition was rejected by the House of 
Commons for containing "disrespectful language." It is a tribute 
to Gales* own news service that news of its rejection was in the 
hands of the Constitutional Society in time for them to hold 
their general meeting on the following day. Here, under the chair- 
manship of Matthew Brown (editor of the Patriot) the society 



^Samuel Mitchell, Tfie Burr/cry of SJvcffield (Sheffield, 1S28), 33; J. D: Leader, The 
Burger'/ of Sheffield (Sheffield, 1807), 399. 

43 Sheffield f&nister, April 5, 1793. The oommiU.ee consisted of Joseph Ga)e". David Martin, 
Matthew Dodsworth, Thomas Eyre, John Fisher, George Dates, Samuel Warburteu, Luke 
Palfreyman. Joseph Badger, William Green, John Smith, and David Greenvood. 

u That is. by agroeinpr t5iat "sue* otbor miao*. fa'all lie Walton at shall V*i deeaicd pro&er 
to obtain s!p:nat*irefl tberetu" and "thai the committee already cb<xen do attend to the com- 
pletion at thlo bustoeas." 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 347 

censured Wilberforce for his views. 45 "We wish to secure, not to 
overset the constitution" they declared, and ordered their resolu- 
tions to be printed in the Star, The Edinburgh Gazetteer, the 
Netvcastle Chronicle, and, of course, the Sheffield Register. 
Gales, who had hitherto circulated his newspapers with the frank- 
ing signature of Wilberforce, 46 now ceased to do so, and adopted 
(with permission) the signature of Grey. 

Coincident to this, Gales expanded the Register. On April 5 
he proudly announced : 

next to public spirit and inflexible integrity in the conduct of a 
newspaper, EARLY INTELLIGENCE, particularly in time of 
war, will be allowed to be of the greatest consequence. Impressed 
with this idea, the editor of the REGISTER has determined to 
establish a WEEKLY EXPRESS, whereby he shall anticipate 
the London Mail SEVEN HOURS, and be enabled to publish his 
paper on Thursday Evening at Six o'clock; so that his readers 
will be put in possession of the News of that Night, Four Hours 
before the London Papers are received in the ordinary way. 

For fourpence a copy, the readers were offered an enlarged paper 
with wider columns, and with a rapidly expanding periphery of 
circulation. 47 So it is little wonder that his rival William Ward, 
whose Sheffield Advertiser had been struggling in vain to com- 
pete with this dynamic editorship, folded up on June 7, 1793. 

In its place sprang another, animated by the principles of 
"Church and King." Printed by John Northall at the Britania 
Press in King Street, the new paper had as its name the Sheffield 
Courant, and as its motto the legend NOLUMUS LEGES ANG- 
LIAE MUTARE. That it should need to veil its conservatism in a 
Latinism is itself evidence of the popularity of the Sheffield 
Register and its political views. Yet the Courant, from its very 
first number, made no secret that it was going to be frankly 
partisan. It opened its columns to those who had barbs to cast 
at Gales, and full advantage was taken of such hospitality. The 
most sustained attack was delivered by one of the local grammar 
school masters, the Rev. John Russell who, as an ordained clergy- 



15 Especially so, as Wilberforce had been elected as one of the parliamentary representatives 
for the West Riding three years before and had received great support for bis anti-slavexy 
campaign. 

16 Charles Grey, five years younger than Wilberforce, took up the queotion of parliamentary 
reform in this very year. 

iJ He promised that not only would the Rector be pent off bv the Korth and £Jovvh Hail 
Coaches the same night- but aJso that be wouJd "try and introduce the jjegieter at i>joda, 
Birmingham, and Manchester." SkeffieLZ flayuiie*, April 6, 1703. 



348 The North Carolina Historical Review 

man, came out strongly for the Church and King party. He had 
been one of the most intemperate supporters of the motion at 
the cutlers's Hall on June 13, 1792. Now in the columns of the 
Courant he addressed venomous letters to Gales : 

In your seditious Register you endeavoured to persuade the peo- 
ple that they were enslaved and wretched, although every man 
felt himself free and happy. You have been incessantly labouring 
to render them discontented with their situation and dissatisfied 
with their form of government which has never yet been equalled 
since the creation, and I am persuaded will never be excelled 
while the sun and the moon shall endure. 

You have constantly been holding out to them long lists of griev- 
ances. You have rendered Sheffield the execration and abhorrence 
of the whole world. I charge you and your faction with aiming, 
not at reforming, but subverting and destroying the constitution. 
I charge you with a fond attachment to the French Jacobins, of 
which you have given repeated, unequivocal proofs. I charge you 
with labouring to introduce an universal right of suffrage; or in 
other words, for the most ignorant and rash, for the lowest and 
most indigent class of society (and three fourths of every com- 
munity must necessarily consist of such) to dictate laws to, and 
dispose of the property of, all the superior orders of the state. 48 

He addressed the readers of the Courant: 

will you suffer a man who a few years ago came among you as 
a needy adventurer at the head of a paltry crew of ignorant, con- 
ceited, presumptious men, and a parcel of prick eared prentice 
boys — will you suffer such a wretch as this to dictate the law to 
Sheffield, and to affix the stigma of infamy to your town ? 

Sometimes the Courant burst into verse, as in the following : 

How strange it is my printing friend J . . G . . . s 

There should be some who do not like your tales. 

But, let them frown and grunt and seem unkind, 

Tell 'em your motto is "Don't care, don't mind" 

Your Muse — she trumpets forth and loudly sings 

Damnation, ruin, and the fall of kings, 

King Mob excepted, he my boy, must reign, 

Or else to hell go Liberty and Paine 

Oh Joe, how you'd exult to see the day, 

That could bring news The Duke has run away, 

And pleased just like an infant with a rattle, 

Cry round the town — the French have won a battle : 

Some hundreds of the Guards they say are slain, 

Huzza ! God save the French — God bless Tom Paine : 

And if for this you should be put in jail 



*> Sheffield Courant, November 2. 1703, article dated October 29. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 349 

'Twill make you noted — Thereby'll hang a tale: 
You don't mind hanging, call you but a martyr 
How noble will it look — how glorious shine, 
First year of my imprisonment, top line 
Of every title page that year you print. 49 

The pressure of such attacks, the undoubted extra burdens 
which his politics imposed upon him, and the increasing need for 
caution prompted Gales to take on his brother Timothy 50 in the 
office, and to slough off some of his ancillary duties. On May 31, 
1793 he announced in the Register: 

the editor, from his various occupations, being obliged to decline 
the applications of friends to seel or appraise household furni- 
ture, wishes to say that in future, to leave him more liberty to 
attend to other branches of his business, he shall sell only estates 
by auction. 

At the same time, he complained that his "patriotic sentiments 
have created him enemies among those who think it compatible 
with Christian Charity, to endeavour to starve a man into politi- 
cal orthodoxy. Such is the conduct of a few individuals (whose 
poverty of spirit will punish itself) who boast what they have 
done and will do what they can to injure the editor for daring to 
advocate the cause of Freedom of the People." 

Gales himself was not slow in exchanging blows in this wordy 
warfare, but he was shrewd enough to salt them with humor. In 
the "Poets Corner," on the back page of the Register, pungent 
sallies and epigrams began to appear from this time onwards. 
Typical were those on the war with France: 

Of Generals don't tell me, of YORK and such boys ! 

Nor of HOWE — though I mean not their laurels to taint ; 

The General I'm sure that will make the most noise, 

// the war should go on— is— GENERAL COMPLAINT. 

which appeared in the Register of May 3, 1793, and 



™ Sheffield Courant, November 10, 1793. 

60 Timothy Gales lived in the Nursery, near the Bridgehouses. He wrote a little verse for 
the number of April 18 called "No Libel to Think." It ran: 

From the sole of the foot, to the crown of the head, 
They stampt and tax us, both living and dead! 
And yet at such hardships they wish us to wink, 
But we cannot do this while we've freedom — to think. 

He died by drowning on February 19, 1802, after suffering from an illness which reduced 
him to a state of melancholia. Sheffield Iris, February 25, 1802. 



350 The North Carolina Historical Review 

A Glorious war, John Bull, where the whole gain 
Is "grinning honour" for the thousands slain ; 
"Its false" say our allies "for John shall get 
Full FIFTY MILLIONS STERLING— more in debt! 51 

For the war Gales had no liking, nor did the Constitutional 
Society. As they wrote, "we have many thousand members but, 
a vast majority of them being working men, the war . . . has 
deprived many of them of all employment, and almost everyone 
of half his earnings." 52 Gales himself was well alive to the dis- 
astrous effects which it was having, and wrote in the Register on 
August 22, 1793 : "The emigration of artisans and other classes 
of men, from this country to America, have increased to so great 
a degree of late, the last night's Gazette announces the intention 
of the Government to put in force the laws in being for prevent- 
ing them in the future." He quoted other authorities to support 
his view : Colonel H. Lee, the retiring governor of Virginia who 
said "this country (i.e., America) will prove a peaceful asylum to 
all Europeans who may wish to avoid the storm which hangs over 
the most part of Europe, and by the providence of God, it seems 
to have been formed a new world for the retreat of those whom 
it may please to remove from under the iron rod of despotism 
and tyrranny." 53 

And the iron rod was certainly falling on English backs. Gales 
sympathized with each treason trial as it came up for hearing. 
John Frost, William Friend, D. I. Eaton, William Winterbotham, 
Thomas Briellat, John Lambert, James Perry, James Grey, Wil- 
liam Hudson, Alexander Whyte, and Daniel Holt — all of them 
were doing no more than assert what Gales was himself assert- 
ing. 54 Many of them were men of the middle class — one of them 
a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. The heresy hunt was on 
with vengeance. In a clever parody of a tune which was then very 
popular ("Oh dear what can the matter be") Gales printed the 
verse : 

is this — is it not a most artful invention, 

from odious reforms to withdraw our attention, 



R1 Sheffield had no less than thirty recruiting parties, scouring for recruits for the British 
Army on the continent. Local Register, 72. 

u Letter of the Sheffield Constitutional Society, quoted in appendix to the Report of the 
Committee of Secrecy, dated November 1, 1793. 

63 Sheffield Register, April 5, 1793. 

84 All of whose trials, with the evidence adduced against them, may be seen in Howell, 
StaU Triala, vol. XXII, cols. 471-1231. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 351 

and kindle the flames of intestine dissention? 
Ah Britons ! attend to the snare ! 

The wintry atmosphere of persecution seemed to grow even 
colder with the prosecution of Thomas Muir, a twenty-eight-year- 
old advocate whose only crime was that of circulating the Patriot, 
Gales's own journal, and founding a Constitutional Society on the 
Sheffield model. 55 Tried on August 30-31, he was sentenced to 
fourteen years transportation to Botany Bay. 56 In his Register 
Gales described it as "perhaps the most unexampled severity 
which has been heard of in this country for a century. 57 He 
printed Muir's speech, and at the same time wrote a private let- 
ter to his friend Joseph Aston, a gunfounder's son, at Man- 
chester : 

what think you of the fate of poor Muir? We shall no longer 
think anything of 6 12 or 18 months imprisonment after a trans- 
portation of 14 years ! ! Good God ! What can possess the people, 
that they cannot see these enormities. The Patriot you see is 
among the prescribed works. All is yet still respecting it in this 
part of Britain : how long it will remain so, one cannot say. 58 

But there were not wanting signs that it would not be quiet 
for long. On September 16 of that year (1793), Lord Hood 
captured Toulon. The Church and King party used it as an ex- 
cuse to stage a great celebration at the expense of Gales, who 
wrote to Joseph Aston ten days later in a different vein, yet still 
optimistic : 

you were misinformed as to any riot having taken place here. In 
one part of the day however, things wore rather a serious appear- 
ance. The C. and K. party (very small indeed) accompanied by 
a recruiting party, with drum and fife, presented themselves 
before my house and gave me most loyal music, firing and shout- 
ing and someone was heard to say, that my house should not have 
a whole window in it that night. 

This circumstance, I am firmly of opinion, had the effect of call- 
ing together a wall of defence, for,- about an -hour afterwards, up- 



55 Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIII, col. 121, which consists of extracts from the Patriot in 
which the right of the king to tax his subjects even with, the consent of ■ parliament is 
alleged to be a fraud, since parliament is itself not a representative assembly. This is a 
significant extension of the radical doctrines of 1769-1783. . . 

56 Two years later he escaped and had a remarkable series of adventures, being at length 
wounded on a Spanish frigate at Cadiz. 

57 Sheffield Register, September 5 and 12, 1793. 

M Holland and Everett, Memoirs of James Montgomery, I, 160. They wrongly ascribe the 
date of the letter to the year 1791. 



352 The North Carolina Historical Review 

wards of a hundred stout democrats stood before us singing "God 
save great Thomas Paine" to the loyal tune. 
The party increased to 500 and paraded the streets peaceably 
(except singing) all the day. Nor would they leave till they ap- 
prehended all danger to be past. You see what it is to be sup- 
ported. I do not think a riot can be managed here : this was ap- 
parently a push for one. 59 

Gales received still further support from the Constitutional So- 
ciety, which met in October and carried a unanimous resolution to 
the effect that : 

The Sheffield Register deserves the Respect, Support, and En- 
couragement of this Society as a truly independent, impartial, 
patriotic, and well-conducted paper ; and the members will to the 
utmost of their power, both in a collective and individual ca- 
pacity, use their utmost endeavours to promote the general in- 
terest and welfare of the worthy Proprietor and Editor of the 
same." 

Fortified by such support, Gales was able to announce that the 
Register was selling 1,468 copies each week. 

Full of confidence, Gales and the society sent Matthew C. 
Brown to represent them at the General Convention of the 
Friends of the People which had been convened at Edinburgh. 
Something went wrong with the planning, for the convention 
had broken up by the time they arrived. 60 However, Skirving, 
the responsible convener, recalled the Scottish delegates, who pro- 
ceeded to sit once more in the presence of the delegates from Lon- 
don (Joseph Gerrald, Maurice Margarot, Charles Sinclair, and 
Henry Yorke) and Sheffield (Matthew C. Brown) . It is worth re- 
marking that a certain Samuel Brown from Virginia was present. 
The convention, convened to discuss universal suffrage and an- 
nual parliaments, set about their business seriously. They called 
each other "citizen" in the French style, kept minutes, and form- 
ed committees. One of the first papers at the first day's meeting 
was a letter from the Sheffield society, recommending the Patriot 
as good reading for all reformers. In the seventeen days in which 
they sat, Gerrald, Margarot, and Brown were the most effective 
speakers. Brown acted as reporter to Gales, sending him a day- 



M Holland and Everett, Memoirs of James Montgomery, I, 168. 

60 Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIII, col. 915. The name changed the second time to "The 
British Convention of the Delegates of the People." 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 353 

by-day account of events. Indeed, on the seventh day he carried 
a resolution that the committee should revise each day's proceed- 
ings on rising, so that they could be sent to press. 61 Gales sup- 
ported him well, and sent William Carnage with £10 for Brown's 
support. 62 On the thirteenth day Brown was nominated as repre- 
sentative for Leeds as well. He was not without spirit, for when 
the Lord Provost of Edinburgh came down in person to break 
up the convention, Brown was in the chair and only vacated it 
because he was dragged away. 63 The others had been arrested, 
Margarot, Gerrald, Callender, Scott, and Ross. Gales wrote to 
Aston after this forcible dissolution : 

poor Brown's is a hard fate ; but his spirits are excellent — so are 
the spirits of all the sufferers. There is something in persecution 
so fine, so invigorating that those who suffer under it never want 
spirits. The present is a dark period ; no man can penetrate the 
gloom. 64 

Nor was the gloom lightened by his opponents in Sheffield, who 
seemed to intensify their vilifications. The Courant packed its 
pages with abuse of "that nest of vipers, that sink of sedition,' 
and on November 2 addressed an open letter to Gales himself. 
The delegation of Brown was mocked 65 and openly ascribed to 
Gales's machinations: 

What noise is that which so disturbs mine ear? 
Is it some monster bellowing out of fear? 
Be what it may, Repose and Peace it scorns, 
Yet list — dear me — 'tis one of Gales' horns. 

The Rev. John Russell, from his comfortable living at Dronfield, 
launched out with "if you be not madmen, you are the crew of 
the foulest conspirators, the vilest traitors that ever contami- 
nated British ground." 66 

One of the delegates to the convention was Henry Yorke, and 
after the arrest of the leaders he came down to stay with Joseph 



"Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIII, col. 436. 
« 2 Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIV, col. 590. 

63 Brown, "I cannot quit this chair, till the Convention desires it, unless compelled by force" 
Lord Provost, "I will then act as chief constable" and immediately stepped up and pulled 

Brown from the chair. Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIII, col. 467. 

64 Holland and Everett, Memoirs of Montgomery, I, 160. 

66 As in the Sheffield Courant for November 30, 1793: "a Brown animal whom the wisdom 
of some, and the folly of others put into a box drawn by horses and calling it a delegate, 
sent it to Scotland upon a wild goose chase, with orders to proclaim the number of simpletons 
in Sheffield and a full liberty to excaggerate as much as he chose." 

66 Sheffield Courant, December 11, 1793. 



354 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Gales in Sheffield. Henry Yorke (who was more often known as 
Henry Redhead Yorke) was only twenty-one, yet he had already 
achieved a reputation in reforming circles. He had a fiery, im- 
petuous nature, which expressed itself in tumbling imagic ora- 
tory and made him irresistible to women. 67 He had already 
chaired a meeting of the Sheffield Constitutional Society as early 
as March 11, 1793, making such an impression that Gales wrote 
to ask him to return. 68 

Yorke was full of enthusiasm, for he could sustain the heat 
which Gales could impart. Together they determined to utilize 
the winter of 1793-94 in affording material for the Sheffield 
artisan to read. Between them they produced The Spirit of John 
Locke which, though a digest of part of Locke's Treatise on Civil 
Government, served as a tract for the times. "This is not time 
for the People to lose a minute," it urged, "every species of in- 
formation ought to be conveyed to them in as cheap and short a 
manner as possible." Locke was an excellent choice. Respectable, 
philosophic, and eminently readable, he provided a better stalk- 
ing horse than scurrilous Tom Paine, whose personality and 
works were under an ever blackening cloud. For Locke had said, 
"it is certainly unlawful to resist government, but it is certainly 
lawful to resist abuse of government, which is positively to assist 
government." 69 There were other pamphlets too. A Dialogue be- 
tween a Clergyman and a Cottager (originally published in the 
Nottingham Journal in May, 1793) was republished by Gales to 
illustrate the need for universal suffrage. In the same spirit was 
The People's Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted. This told the 
story of the trial of William Penn and William Mead and was a 
reprint of a seventeenth-century account of their trial with an 
introduction either by Gales or Yorke in which were the words : 

The trial took place before the Revolution of 1688, and the spirits 
of the Judges of that day are so similar to that which seems to 



67 Henry Redhead Yorke (1772-1813) was a Derbyshire publicist who began his political 
career with a pamphlet against the abolition of Negro slavery. He quickly changed his views, 
however, was in Sheffield in 1793, and represented the Crown and Anchor Society of London 
at the Edinburgh Convention, Montgomery implies that he was a quadroon "with a style 
altogether French" (Memoirs, I, 165). His luxuriantly curly hair and fastidious dress prob- 
ably accounted for his way with women, which is amply borne out by Montgomery, who (p. 
171), implies that Yorke seduced Gales's youngest sister Sarah. There was also another woman, 
according to the local doctor, (Howell, State Trials, vol. XXV, col. 1119; vol. XXIV, col. 665) 
who called her son Henry Yorke. For Gales's writing the letter of invitation to Yorke Bee 
Howell, State Trials, vol. XXV, col. 1119. 

08 For the rest of his time at Sheffield he lived at the Hartshead. 

80 G. P. Jones, The Political Reform Movement in Sheffield, 63. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 355 

pervade the Courts of the present day ; and the spirit of the Jury- 
men so widely different, that the Sheffield Constitutional Society 
cannot refrain from publishing this remarkable trial, hoping that 
the perusal of it may have a good effect in bringing back both 
Judges and Juries to a proper sense of their duty. 70 

So it was not surprising that Sheffield became the "storm cen- 
tre of the north." 71 On December 16, when the rest of the country 
was silenced by the prosecutions for seditious writings and libels, 
the Sheffield Constitutional Society, deprived of any large hall 
in which to convene a public meeting (for the landlords of inns 
had refused to be associated with their cause), held one in the 
Park. Strong disapproval with the official construction put upon 
the word "sedition" was expressed, and all present signified their 
determination to persist in working for a reform of parliament. 

They were able to signify their disapproval of the official policy 
on February 28, 1794. This day was ordered to be observed as a 
public fast day, but Gales and his associates had no intention of 
observing it as such. Instead, a further monster meeting was 
convened at Backfields, near West Street. A prayer opened the 
proceedings, a hymn (written by Montgomery for the occasion) 
was sung, and then the business of the day began. A series of 
resolutions were passed against the war with France ("a war of 
the most diabolical kind"), against the very institution of fast 
days ("a most solemn prostitution of religion"), and especially 
against the landing of Hessian troops in England ("a ferocious 
and unprincipled horde of butchers"). They all agreed that it 
was "high time to be on our guard" since "these armed monsters 
may in a moment be let loose upon us ; particularly, as the erec- 
tion of barracks throughout the kingdom may only have been an 
introductory measure to the filling them with foreign mercen- 
aries." They voted thanks to Earl Stanhope and Richard Brins- 
ley Sheridan for their courage in supporting the imprisoned 
Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot. 72 Indeed, so great was 
the impression that this demonstration left upon the reformers 



70 J. Taylor, The Sheffield Constitutional Society, Appendix 1, 142-145. 

71 P. A. Brown, The French Revolution in English History, 145. 

72 The Fast Day as Observed at Sheffield was published by Gales as a pamphlet and a copy 
was sent to the London Corresponding: Society. It was seized, together with the minutes of 
the London Corresponding Society, when Hardy was arrested. The Courant on March 15, 1794, 
indignantly wrote of the "Frenchified traitors" that "there is not another part of the Kingdom 
that shall read this account alluded to, but shall at once exclaim "if this be true, then Shef- 
field should be laid in ashes." The London St. James Chronicle on March 8 referred to the 
Sheffield Register as "a vehicle of sedition." 



356 The North Carolina Historical Review 

that the London Corresponding Society wrote to express their 
approval of the course which they had taken. 73 

"On our guard" — these were pregnant words. At this time a 
new member entered the Gales household, Richard Davison, 
nominally employed as a compositor on the Sheffield Register, 
actually a knowledgeable authority on pikes. When Gales ap- 
proached a local cutler with a bayonet as a pattern and asked 
him to make specimens, it was to Richard Davison that he showed 
them and heard assurance that they might be wanted in London 
too. 74 Indeed Davison actually wrote to Hardy offering them for 
sale. Davison certainly seems to have intended something more 
than mere defence. 75 But defence was needed in Sheffield. One 
member of the Sheffield Constitutional Society swore on oath that 
his own house was attacked by armed ruffians who swore they 
would pull it down about his ears and burn it. 76 Sometimes they 
even fired through windows or under the doors. 

Well might Henry Yorke exclaim "these are the times to try 
men's souls." The culminating incident occurred on April 7, 
1794. A big meeting was staged on Castle Hill, and before it 
Henry Yorke and Joseph Gales dined together. William Broom- 
head, who had succeeded Carnage as secretary of the Constitu- 
tional Society, was put up to propose a petition to Parliament. 
This Aunt Sally motion was soon knocked down as arranged and 
Henry Yorke was able to carry his resolution that they would 
indulge in no more petitions. Nothing was said about rebellion, 
although Henry Yorke made several equivocal references to a 
"grand political explosion." They passed a resolution that "the 
People ought to demand as a right, not petition as a favour, for 
universal representation." Yorke's speech certainly proved a star 
attraction that day, for one man, whose wife was delivering a 
child, was so intrigued by what he heard that he forgot to get 
the doctor. 77 But there is no reason to believe, nor evidence to 
show, that Gales himself meant to resort to the arbitrament of 
pikes. He was far too canny and politically wise to throw away 



73 Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIV, col. 639. It is also significant that the local landowner, 
Earl Fitzwilliam, had been receiving reports of these activities. All the Fitzwilliam Papers 
have recently (1949) been deposited in the Sheffield Public Library. 

74 P. A. Brown, The French Revolution in English History, 145, who also comments that 
Sheffield presents the "only clearly defined instance of arming in England." 

75 For which reason he was later coupled in the Yorke indictment. 

76 Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIV, col. 666. 

77 Howell, State Trials, vol. XXV, col. 1054. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 357 

by such foolhardiness all he had built up. Nevertheless he too 
was exuberant over the success of the meeting and wrote to As- 
ton: "I need not tell you we had a capital meeting: I had the 
honour to be drawn along with Yorke amid the thousands." 78 
Once more a copy of the proceedings was sent to the London So- 
ciety 79 and to Charles James Fox. 80 

All around the reformers were evidences that they were being 
menaced. The formation of a corps of volunteers in the town 
prompted the Courant to observe : 

the necessity for strengthening the hands of government in- 
creases every day as the seditions of this place become more dar- 
ing with every meeting. What can be more insulting than their 
late groaning petitions to the throne; where Majesty itself is 
threatened by such a rabble? 

Then, after asking what security there is to be for Property, 
Religion, King, and Constitution, the Courant concluded : 

for preserving these, let us lay our hands upon the sword, and 
appeal to Heaven for the purity of our intentions, which are no 
other than the securing to Mankind, Life, Liberty, and Property, 
and to oppose committing the Existence of the Kingdom into the 
hands of a lawless and desperate Democracy. 81 

If this did not make Gales and his associates look to self-defence, 
the Courant would be surprised. 

Fortune favoured Gales at this time. Paul Butler, a smith and 
farrier, was given a letter to carry to Dennis Frith of Eckington 
by S. Marshall, a merchant of Snig Hill, Sheffield. The letter, in- 
stead of going direct to Frith, came first to Gales's office at the 
Hartshead, and proved such good copy that Gales printed it in 
the Register. It ran : 

Gales has given up the idea for a convention meeting on Monday 
— tis well he has — he is vile indeed — see his paper the last week 
I send you a Few wrote as Burlesque — they are Smart who the 
author is I don't know — when Lawless banded with Redhead 
alias York — with Carnage and the Sec. Broomhead — He said 
from his window Citizens disperse — and then exclaimed now see 



78 Memoirs of James Montgomery, I, 167. 

79 Howell, State Trials, vol. XXIV, col. 613. 

80 The supreme piece of audacity to the Church and King party was the determination of the 
meeting "to present an address to the King, on behalf of Muir, Palmer, Skirving, Margarot, 
and Gerrald, and to petition him for the total abolition of slavery." The society did write con- 
soling letters to these imprisoned men, and received their thanks. 

61 May 10, 1794. 



358 The North Carolina Historical Review 

how they obey me — I have sent last week and this week , papers 
to Earl Fitzwilliam and have had a friendly reply to my first 
letter. Tis said Justice Bond is coming down and more troops are 
Coming What reproach this troubler in our Israel this man of 
the people from Eckington. 82 

Marshall was almost incoherent with rage that his telltale ac- 
tivities had been thus revealed, and wrote back a letter to Gales, 
who imperturbably inserted it once more in the Register: 

I do assure you it has made me extremely uncomforatble this 
day, and will I no doubt break in upon my Rest this Night and I 
expect abuse and insult from this dareing Parragraff which you 
have Inserted in your Paper — 'tis verry true I sent one of your 
Papers to Earl Fitzwilliam — in which was the Petitions to the 
King's Majesty — so did our worthy Mr. Wilkinson — a post or two 
after — & his Ls kindly wrote in Reply — & if you will call upon me 
you shall see his Ls letter — my writeing to his Ls was in Conse- 
quence of a Conversation the day I had the Honour of dineing 
with him at his House with Mr. Jonathan Walker and a Number 
of Gent — it was then — that his Ls expressed his Concern at the 
Inflammatory tendency of your Paper & he said it was — a paper 
that was 111 calculated for a large manufacturing Town — &etc — 
and thousands are of the same opinion. 83 

So Gales was warned that the authorities were watching of 
his movements. His newsmen and employees began to receive 
rough usage. At Wakefield one of them was chased by boys who 
shouted "there goes a Paineite!" ; another was manhandled at 
Leeds by recruits. Government agents, who had arrested Thomas 
Hardy, secretary of the London Corresponding Society, found 
letters from the Sheffield Constitutional Society incriminat- 
ing Gales and Davison. This was on May 12, 1794. Twelve days 
later Broomhead, Carnage, and Moody were taken into custody for 
questioning and later brought down to London. Widdison and 
Hill, the two members concerned in the manufacture of pikes, 
were also arrested. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended and 
everyone who seemed the slightest menace was liable to be ar- 
rested and restrained without trial. Gales wrote in his Register: 



83 Sheffield Register May 2, 1794. This Dennis Frith was probably the same Dennis Frith 
of whom Gales wrote in his Register on December 10, 1790, that his apprentice had hung 
himself in a barn. S. Marshall is listed on p. 5*8 of Gales's and Martin's Directory, as having 
a shop next to that of Luke Palfreyman. The Sheffield Courant on May 10 does not deny that 
Marshall wrote the letter, only that Gales had published a "mutilated version." 

Ki Earl Fitzwilliam had been receiving reports on the Constitutional Society since 1792. The 
publication of this letter in the Register would undoubtedly make Marshall feel extremely 
incomfortable, and may have stimulated the Church and King's party to push for Gales's 
removal. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 359 

every wretch in the country, who has either through Malice or 
Envy, a dislike to his neighbours, will now have an opportunity 
of gratifying his malicious intention . . . spies and informers . . . 
will crowd the Prisons with innocent people, as long as the 
Liberties of Englishmen are at the mercy of such debased and 
infamous characters. 84 

Why was Joseph Gales not arrested? Hitherto the generally 
accepted reason has been that contained in the Memoirs of Mont- 
gomery, where the editors assert that Henry Redhead Yorke was 
unwittingly the cause. On page 171 of volume 1 they write : 

he contrived not only to domicile himself for a time in the family 
at the Hartshead, but ultimately to obtain the affections of his 
host's youngest sister, Sarah. This circumstance became the un- 
foreseen hinge of an important event. Yorke left Sheffield for 
Derby in an unsatisfactory manner, so far as his intentions 
towards the lady were concerned : and to that town, after having 
published his newspaper on the 16th March, Gales followed him. 
In the course of the day a government messenger, accompanied by 
the local constable, entered the house of the Sheffield printer with 
a warrant for his arrest on a charge of conspiracy ! After search- 
ing the premises in vain for Mr. Gales, they proceeded to a public 
house adjacent, armed with a similar authority for the capture 
of Davison, who at the moment sat smoking with a fellow com- 
positor. On the constable putting his head into the room and ask- 
ing if Davison was there, "No" replied his companion with ad- 
mirable presence of mind, "he's just gone off." The officer turned 
aside, and justly alarmed secretary of the "Constitutional So- 
ciety" immediately made his escape — ultimately reaching Ameri- 
ca, where he afterwards settled, throve, and became a magistrate. 

But this account is manifestly false in three particulars. First, as 
has been shown, Yorke was in Sheffield, starring at the Castle Hill 
meeting on April 7. This meeting was made the basis of a joint 
prosecution of Gales, Yorke, and Davison. Secondly, there is a 
considerable amount of evidence to show that though Yorke 
might have been very fond of Sarah Gales, he was fonder still 
of someone else. 85 Third, Davison was not the secretary of the 
Constitutional Society; Broomhead was. Davison was a recent 
arrival, and it was Broomhead who answered all the questions at 
the trials. Apart from these three errors, the substance of the 



84 Sheffield Register, June 5, 1794 (after Gales's associates had been arrested). 

85 Dr. Frith accused Henry Yorke of being "more intimate than is proper with a married 
woman"; and Ebenezer Rhodes remarked darkly that he had "reason to know" that Yorke 
had lodged somewhere else in Sheffield, and not with Gales. (See Howell, State Trials, vol. 
XXV, cols. 1053 and 1131.) Sara Gales was twenty-one years old at this time. 



360 The North Carolina Historical Review 

tale may be true enough. Gales may have chased Yorke to Derby. 
But he certainly took to hiding somewhere else, where he could 
still keep an eye on his newspaper, for Derby was too far away. 

For the Register was thriving so well that its sales topped the 
two thousand mark by twenty five. So, hidden in the house of 
Payne of Newhill Grange (about twelve miles from Sheffield), 
he was able to carry on his editorial work helped by James Mont- 
gomery, who used to ride over on a horse with Mrs. Gales on the 
pillion. 80 From Newhill Grange he continued to write vigorously. 
He called attention to the numbers of M.P.s who were absent 
when the Habeas Corpus Act had been suspended by the House 
of Commons, and trounced the conduct of the three officers who 
misbehaved themselves in the Hartshead. When two men, ar- 
rested after firing into the house where three of his compositors 
lived, were brought before the justices, he recorded the fact that 
they were only bound over, because they stated, as the defence for 
their conduct, that they conceived the house to shelter "Gales' 
men/' 

As England was too hot to hold him, Gales made prepara- 
tions to leave. On June 19 he announced the last number of the 
Patriot. The publication of the report of the Secret Committee of 
the House of Commons brought out the story of the pikes, so he 
was a marked man. In the 369th number of the Register he 
announced his intention of leaving, inserting in his farewell mes- 
sage a denial that he ever wrote the letter about the pikes. "This 
charge," he wrote on May 26 "in the most unequivocal manner, 
I DENY. I neither wrote, dictated, nor was privy to it; nor till 
Mr. Hardy's apprehension, had I any knowledge of it. As far as 
this stigma personally respects myself or family, I am indifferent 
as to the Report, but I owe, to my Friends and the Public, the 
duty of clearing myself from the imputation." Thus ended his 
journalistic career in England. 

Some idea of his stature may be gauged by a comparison of 
his own later history with that of his associates. He went on to 



m Memoir 8 of Montgomery, I, 199. This house was built by Payne (or Paine) in 1784. It is 
not clear whether this was actually a kinsman of Tom Paine or not; W. K. Martin, A History 
of The Ancient Parish of Wath-upon-Dearne (Wath, 1920), 33. It was certainly a rendezvous 
for reformers, since Henry Yorke stayed here just before the Castle Hill meeting (State 
Trials, vol. XXV, col. 1113). John Payne, the person concerned, has been with some cer- 
tainty identified as Vicinus, who wrote in the Register and was the author of another of 
Gales' pamphlets Vicinus' Reply to the Letter of J. R. of Dronfield (Sheffield, 1792) for 
his name is written in an eighteenth-century hand across the title page of the copy in the 
Sheffield Central Reference Library. The pamphlet pours scorn on the idea that troops will 
"quell" the reforming spirit in Sheffield. 



The Editorial Experiences of Joseph Gales 361 

Germany, and later to America, to continue in the principles 
which he had advocated in Sheffield. Not so Henry Yorke. Yorke 
was tried on the charge of fomenting a conspiracy with Gales 
and Davison in July of the following year (1795) and sentenced 
to a fine of £200 and two years imprisonment in Dorchester gaol. 
But his curly hair and impetuous eloquence once more served him 
well — he married his gaoler's daughter, and the next time he 
appeared in Sheffield he was dressed as a lieutenant-colonel. The 
other members of the Sheffield Constitutional Society were ac- 
quitted on condition that they gave evidence at the trial of Henry 
Yorke. Though the rump of the society had expressed its appro- 
bation and condolences towards Joseph Gales, they could do little 
to help him professionally. For his sudden flight had led his 
principal creditor, George Robinson, of Paternoster Row, London, 
to clamor for payment. Nor if they could, were they able to ward 
off the impending trial. 

Without Gales, the Sheffield Constitutional Society lost its 
voice. For though the Register was continued by Montgomery as 
the Sheffield Iris, Montgomery was determined not to suffer 
Gales's fate and did not openly espouse the reformers' cause. 87 
The poet's corner which had set off the squibs of Mather, now 
housed the more respectable and ornate literary effusions of Bar- 
bara Hoole. 88 Only once did the dying embers flare up after the 
great debacle of 1794, and that was when Citizen Barrow of Lon- 
don took the chair at a meeting which petitioned his majesty to 
"restore the blessings of peace to this suffering, bleeding coun- 
try." With Gales's departure the radical fires were damped down 
for another generation. 89 



87 As Montgomery's motto ran : 

Ours are the plans of fair, delightful Peace, 
Unwarped by party rage, to live like brothers. 

88 Later Mrs. Hofland. A greater contrast to Joseph Mather could not easily be found. 

80 A phenomenon which applied to the whole nation. As G. M. Trevelyan observed in his 
Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (London, 1920), 76, 80, "during the next generation the free- 
dom of the press existed only in name" and "from 1794-1816 there was no political agitation 
of any kind." 



LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO 
ANDREW JOHNSON 

Edited by 
Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 

[Continued] 

From C. F. Sussdorff 

Garysburg July 28 th . 1866- 
Madam, 

I hope you will pardon the writer in addressing you this 
communication, I do so because knowing that the President 
being overwhelmed with business may not find convenient to 
read all the letters addressed to him. Knowing that a husband 
has but few secrets from his wife, and especially since in your 
case the world believes that you have been in no small degree to 
help him to the present high position he now occupies- I have 
the assurance to ask a request of you in the most respectful man- 
ner and that is that you be pleased to read this communication 
and if you find that it is not worthy his notice, please throw it 
into the fire. If otherwise however, and you should find it worthy 
his notice, I would beg of you to hand it to him at a leausur [sic] 
moment when he is less engaged in his public duties as I would 
not add a feather's weight to his labours. 

With the assurance of my great respect 

I remain Madam 

Your very humble serv. 1 
Mrs. President Johnson 
Washington D. C 



From C. S Sussdorff 

Garysburg North Hampton C° North Carolina 
July 28 th 1866- 
To the President of the U. States 
Washington City, 
D.C. 
Excellency, 

An unknown and obscure individual like myself may possibly 
be considered presumptious in addressing the President of the 
U. States except on official business, but my motive in writing 
I trust your Excellency will, at the end perceive, and pardon 
the freedom. 

Opposed as you must be to circumlocution I will therefore go 
strait to the subject and tell you in the beginning why I write 

[ 362 ] 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 363 

these lines. I am in humble life and earn my bread by my own 
labour, have travelled for 30 years in N. Carolina, S. Car. Geor- 
gia, Virginia and Tennessee, am by profession a tuner and re- 
pairer of Pianoes and in this capacity have come, for these long 
years and do now come in contact with the best and most edu- 
cated part to say the least "the most influential part" of the 
community every day. I hear their conversations and take part 
in it, and consequently form an idea of their feelings in reference 
to matters present, past or future. I am a German by birth, 59 
years of age and came to South Car : in 1833 never held a slave, 
yet not by any means a radical. 

In the Position your Excellency occupies it is absolutely neces- 
sary in order to act with wisdom to know the feelings and aims 
of the people over whom you preside and for whose benefit you 
are determined to risk all. In various documents emanating from 
your Excellency you have desired to have the support of the 
people every where, who love the Constitution and laws and to 
bring the government back to its original purity. For my own 
part, and I can say that for thousands, are in heart and hand 
with you in the plan of restoration and we bless you and pray 
for you that the "Lord" in his infinit goodness may take you in 
His special keeping in order to safe us and the Land from utter 
destruction. We owe you a great deal of gratitude for the stand 
you have taken in our behalf- We may have erred, still the 
people as a mass thought they had a right to cut loose from the 
old ship, but most of them have seen the folly and are perfectly 
willing to abide by the constitution henceforth. 

Mr. President, the feelings that pass through my mind when 
I think of the position you have taken and maintained against 
a fearful and unscrupulous opposition, I can not explain to you- 
suffice is to say, without flattery or ostentation, that I carry 
your likeness next my heart in a small case and it shall ever 
gratefully be cherished there. 

In Congress and in the News Papers North we hear a great 
deal said about the disloyalty of the people south &c. because the 
people will not take northren men that come among us by the 
hand at once and make a big to do over them, or lick their boots. 
You may have been somewhat missled in the matter, even by 
southren men (pardon me) but I tell your Excellency frankly, 
how it its. When some of these men or women come here, they 
conduct themselves in such a way as to disgust our folks. They 
boast what they can do, talk abusively about the sins of slavery 
and glorify the North.Well we have been punished severely 
enough, God knows and to be continually told that we are whip- 
ped and deserve destruction, is not calculated to put us in a very 
amiable mood towards them, is true. If disloyalty means to hate 
these noisy fellows and Radicals in Congress and out of it who 
mean to change the Constitution in a manner that not a vestige 
is left of the original document, then are we truly so ; but on the 
contrary if loyalty means to be true to the Constitution as set 



364 The North Carolina Historical Review 

forth in the amnesty proclamation and oath - then are we truly 
loyal to that instrument and the Government. 

Presidents, kings, and Rulers as a general thing are surround- 
ed by flatterers, time servers and spies. Knowing these fact, 
and wishing to hear truths told them, they generally employed 
wise men and gave them the privilege of saying anything they 
pleased and to any lady without taking offence, and went under 
the name of "Court Fools" ! 

Your Excellency will pardon me when I allude to one person 
whom you appointed to office in this State I mean Ex Gov: 
Holden who tried hard to be made Governor by the vote of the 
people im [m] ediately before the war but failed. This soured his 
temper considerable still he preached the doctrine of Sesession 
took the State out of the Union and told us that it was a just, 
holy and righteous cause. He further more encouraged volun- 
teering and said the last dollar and the last cent must be spent. 
He had a great share in imbuing the people with the right of 
sesession and had he been elected in place of Ellis at the second 
term would have made as strong a Southren as ever drew a 
sword. He praised Vance and recommended him to the people- 
For a year or so he worked in concert with him, at last though 
he grew cold, turned square round and did all to defeat the 
movement he had set in motion. He now calls himself a loyal 
and sitts in judgement over those he missled for recommenda- 
tions for executive pardons. He speakes constantly about the 
disaffection in North Carolina and seems to make the Govern- 
ment believe that we can't be trusted,says : look at the election 
of Worth, who was elected by Sesesh! You Mr President ap- 
pointed me and in rejecting me, they have rejected you and 
your policy! Not so fast I say Mr. Holden: The President was 
not rejected, but Worth being a Union man from first to last, 
they simple voted for him because they believed Gov. Worth 
was consistant and that it would please you better, supposing 
in appointing Holden, you knew of no other man, whom you 
could give the office on the spurr of the moment and before the 
smoke of the battle has cleared away. 

I was at one time a sincere Holden man and believed as 
thousand did in his integrity, but he missled us forsooken and 
now sits in judgement over us. I ask you in all honesty, is it not 
humiliating and can you blame us, "the common people of having 
no more faith in him? Spare us this humiliation in future Mr. 
President and in rejecting W. W. Holden- we by no manner of 
means reflect upon you any disregard. We love and honor 
you and you might come among us unattended and no harm 
would befall you, but honour and respect would be heaped upon 
you, because you stand as firm as a rock upon what is just and 
merciful. Let Holden say what he pleases about Gov. Worth, he 
is nevertheless true to you and the Constitution. Were your ex- 
cellency inclined to to change your mind and run a second term 
for President I am confident the whole South would vote for 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 365 

you, with perhaps some few exceptions, and I do know, judging 
folks by their passed conduct- W. W. Holden might be of that 
class at last. 

In order to safe the Government from going to wreck we must 
be united and all past differences laid aside for it will take her- 
culean strength [to] right the ship of State. We have to deal 
with a party that aims at a central Government and whip out 
the individuality of the States- they have been hammering at it 
for 7 or 8 ms. and still continue their aim, and would have 
played havoc, if it had not been for your firmness. Surely the 
Lord raised you up to be our shield and bucklar, and with you 
as our Josuah of old we will follow you in into the the thickest 
of the field inscribing on our Banner the Constist. and the laws 
and Andrew Johnston our leader - and give the "Lord our God 
the Glory" His Holy name be praised ! 

With your Excellency permission I will now relate a few little 
incidents: That the people should be stunned by the great up- 
heavings in the South, loss of property &c- is very natural, but 
that this lethargy should be hearlded forth to the injury and 
oppression is cruel in the extreme . In my intercourse with 
people I find that they are loath to take News Papers and I have 
to go sometimes for several weeks without seeing a sentence of 
what is going on in the outerworld. I ask what's the reason you 
don't take a paper? Well if we take one, we hear nothing but 
abuse- the Radicals have it all their own way any how! Thats 
not true, is not the President a whole team in himself to hold 
their radical wagon back and has he not done it? Yes he has 
done wonders, but they will prove too many for him in the end. 
Exactly so, if all were actuated by the same spirit they might, 
but that's not going to happen if we show as much moral courage 
as we showed brute- 
One gentleman in a high social position kept no Papers, when 
asked the reason he said: he had kept at least ten before the 
war, but now he was done with politics &c. and if he had served 
his God as well as his political party would call himself a good 
Christian. I told him it was not worth while to jump from one 
extreme into another, and if you are afraid to hear of what the 
Radicals are concocting, you remind me very much of the Ostrich 
who when pursued and about being overtaken sticks his head 
into the Sand, believing that the enemy wont discover him and 
perishes foolishly. I told him I wanted him to fan the music under 
the President boldly- he said that was his doctrine too. I assure 
you Excellency that if we can make a tolerable good crop this 
year- The spirit will revive we will be able to pay our taxes 
readier and all will wear a new face. 

In all your Excellency's reply to depudations I perceive an 
intimate knowledge of the southren Character, impulsive but 
chivalric, brave to a fait, giving no insult and taking none, con- 
stitution loving and forgiving when honour is satisfied. You said 
in one of your replys "The Southren People must be trusted" ! 



366 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Never did Solomon utter a truer sentence and had your counsel 
been followed up by Congress, the Union and good feeling would 
have been almost perfect as of old, for every one was disposed 
o prove how sincerely repentant he could be. I speak of the 
Southren people- how it would have been in the North is quiet 
a different question. 

I believe that in the providence of God it was so ordained that 
the Radicals should have overwhelming majority in order that 
they had full swing to show to the world what the[y] meant to 
do- if let alone. Their proceedings opened the eyes of all con- 
servative men and made them pause and reflect and see the real 
design of these mad revolutionists. Had they been compelled to 
work more covertly, they might have undermined the political 
fabric stealthily by degrees. All is plain now and there is no 
excuse for them and they will reap their reward yet. I hope the 
Philadelphia Convention will be properly attended by every 
Southren and Northren State so that the people may once more 
come together and shake hands and they the Lord bless their 
doings ! I want peace and harmony to reign over this land once 
more, and he who can produce that desirable object will live in 
history for ever , and I trust that Andrew Johnston Pres. of the 
U.S. will be that man. 

Fearing that I have wearied you too long I must come to a 
close asking humble and reverently of your kind heart to favour 
and that is that you may be pleased in mercy to take into con- 
sideration the unpardoned condition of Ex Gov. William Graham, 
Ex Gov. Vance and Brigadier Gen. 1 Seals 68 all of this State. 
Allow me to say that more honourable men are no where to be 
found and if they pass to you their word that they will observe 
the Const. & the Laws they will surely do it- I know their char- 
acter. You have pardoned many it is true but extend your to mercy 
a litle further , Recollect Mr. Pres ! to Err is human- to forgive 
divine" and North Carolinians will love you the more for it and 
bless you, Now Mr. Johnston my honoured Sir, if I have said 
too much accord it to my ignorance- I am but a mechanic and 
never had a collegiate education. To write an english letter cor- 
rectly is a difficult thing so do, but take, please, the will for the 
deed. 

You are constantly in my thoughts and at night when I appeal 
to the throne of Grace to forgive my many sins and failings I 
inclose you and yours as I have heard the same done in many 
private families, to pray that the Lord may graciosly protect 
you and guide you in the proper way, and keep your mind sound 



68 Alfred M. Scales (Nov. 26, 1827-Feb. 9, 1892) was born in Reidsville; attended Cald- 
well Institute and the University of North Carolina; was admitted to the bar in 1851 and two 
years later became solicitor of Rockingham County; was elected member of the North Caro- 
lina house of commons, 1852, 1853, 1856, 1857; served in the House of Representatives of 
Congress from 1857 to 1859 and from 1875 to December 30, 1884, when he resigned to be- 
come governor of North Carolina, serving from 1885 to 1889; engaged in banking business 
in Greensboro; and was one of the twenty-seven brigadier generals from the state serving 
in the military service of the Confederacy. Biographical Oirectory of ths American Congress* 
177b~19£7, 1497; Hamilton. Reconstruction, 36n. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 367 

and steadfast to his Glory and Renown ! With these humble re- 
marks. 

I am your Excellency's humble servant 
My home is in Salem Forsythe Co. North Carolina. Gov Worth 
could tell you who I am 



From William W. Holden 

Raleigh, Aug. 1. 1866 
My dear Mr. President : Enclose please find an Editorial of the 
Standard in relation to a recent letter of Judge Ruffin. 

You may remember I told you, when in Washington, that the 
rebellious leaders in this State held that your whole plan of 
restoration was a usurpation, and that consequently they de- 
nied the validity of the acts of the Convention. Judge Ruffin 69 
is the leader of these men, all of whom are high in favor with 
Gov. Worth. 

Our people will vote to-morrow, and next day, and next, for 
the ratification or rejection of the new Constitution. All things 
considered, it is an excellent instrument. But there leaders are 
against it, first, because they deny the authority under which it 
was made, and secondly, because it abolished the black basis and 
institutes the white. They also hope that if they can invalidate 
the Convention they will be able to pay the rebel debt, much of 
which is owing to them. So far as slavery is concerned, they 
intend to try that in the Courts, at least for compensation for 
them, on the ground that they agreed to the amendment abolish- 
ing it under duress. 

I hear from various parts of the state that there is a concen- 
trated movement to defeat the new Constitution. Gov. Worth 
may vote for it, to hide appearances, but his newspaper organs 
are doing all they can against it, and the counties that gave 
him the largest votes last Fall, will give the heavist votes against 
the Constitution. I hear from the West that Graham is acting 
with Ruffin, while the whole East is against the Constitution. If 
adopted at all , which is doubtful, it will be done by the loyal men 
of the West. 

I dislike very much, Sir, to be troublesome. I have been silent 
and quiet for many months, in the hope that our leaders and 
rulers here would prove themselves loyal, and would aid in good 
faith in carrying out your plan. But I have lost all hope in this 
respect, and hence the trouble I am giving you. 

If you would aid us to the extent indicated by me, when in 
Washington; I am satisfied' we could wrest the State from the 
hands of 'these men. Indeed if the new Constitution, should be. 
rejected, you would be justified in taking the State again into' 

69 Judge Thomas Ruffin was the ablest leader of the opposition to the convention of 1866. 
He opposed in on the basis of white representation, but his chief argument was the lack of 
authority of the convention to act. Ruffin's correspondence, including newspaper comments 
on the subject, appears in J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, ed., The Papers of TltortuLs Ruffin, 
IV. 62-130. 



368 The North Carolina Historical Review 

your own hands. Our loyal people would hail such a step on your 
part with shouts and rejoicings. 

With much respect, Your Friend 

' From Jonathan Worth 

Executive Dep* of N C 
Raleigh, Sep r 15 1866 
Personal 
Sir 

Nobody, not demented by party rage, doubts your devotion to 
the Union. You have known, as I have known, the constant op- 
ponent of Secessionism and all other issues which fostered Sec- 
tionalism & Disunion.- When the terrible task devolved on you 
as the head of the nation to compose the jarring passions & 
restore a harmonious Union, your object doubtless was to select 
as your agents men who like yourself had constantly opposed 
Sectionalism & Disunion. In this State your selection was un- 
fortunate. No man in this State had done so much to teach seces- 
sion & create sectional alienation as W.W. Holden. Others had 
equal zeal, but not equal adroitness & opportunity to effect the 
end. Just before the breaking out of the war he took sides with 
the Union men, - an immense majority of this State ; but sought 
a seat in the Convention of 1861, and voted to dissolve the Union, 
and fervently labored to make Disunion perpetual. In the Prog- 
ress of the war he bacame alienated from the leaders of the 
Rebellion, and made Peace & Independence his motto - but scout- 
ed Re-union. As a consequence his former Secession friends hated 
him, & the bare Union men despised him. Your friends then & 
now excuse you for his appointment on the ground that you were 
not posted as to your antecedents. When you offered a free elec- 
tion to the people of this State the most constant Union men 
induced me to become a candidate & sustained me on account of 
my better Union record : but many of the best Union men of the 
State, who preferred me, voted for him, on the idea that you 
preferred him. Most of the Secessionist voted for me, because 
they hated him as a renegade from their ranks, who after desert- 
ing, reviled them : and as all regarded the Union restored and 
then intended, in good faith to sustain it, they preferred a more 
constant & consistent Union man. Every man in the State knows 
well that I never had any affinity , or gave the slightest conuton- 
ance to Sectionism, North or South, and that I adhere now, most 
firmly, to these convictions-, and hence I support your views be- 
cause they look to National Conciliation & Concord. In Nov. r 
last you sent to Gov r Holden a telegram which he published , 
declaring that the recent elections in this State, "had greatly 
damaged the prospects of the State, in the restoration if its 
governmental relations." - Elections had just been held for mem- 
bers of Congress and the Genl Asembly as well as for Gov r . 
Gov r Holden has kept the telegram as a standing article in his 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 369 

paper, and construes it as a having special reference to my 
election . He insists that I have been a stumbling block in the 
way of your restoration policy. From his supposed intimacy with 
you many believe his interpretation is all right. For ought I 
known, it may be that you have confidence in him & not in me : - 
but I know that the great body of the intelligent Union men of 
this State have confidence in me ; and have not confidence in him. 

He now advocates the ratification by this State, of the Howard 
amendment:- and publishes without dissent, the electioneering 
documents of the Radicals, and is endeavoring to get up radical 
opposition to me, which he puts on the ground that my election 
would be unacceptable to you. 

If there be any thing in my political record or private life, be- 
fore, or since, or during the war, which warrants your alleged 
partiality for him, and aversion to me, I cannot imagine what 
it is. If the fact be so, it must rest on some misinformation. The 
unceasing reiteration of this thing by a man claiming , with much 
plausibility to be in your confidence, impairs the efficacy of my 
exertions to aid you in your noble efforts to restore a fraternal 
Union. 

Yours very truly 
His Excellency Andrew Johnson 
I enclose the last issue of the Standard - 



From George Carver 

Huntsville Yadkin Co N C 
October 10 th 1866 
To His Exce. 1 Andrew Johnson 
Dear Sir 

I have thought for sometime past that I would write you a 
letter, but am fearful you have forgotten me and will think I 
am writing for some favor, but such is not the case. I went from 
this state to Greenville Ten and lived with Dixon & Williams and 
was there about a week before you arrived. I made your ac- 
quaintance and was in the caucus that brot you out for the 
legislature against John McGaughty. I lived in Greenville five 
years You was my tailor and made me several suits of clothing- 
I am glad of the progress you have made and feel proud of the 
position you have gained. We look on you as our only friend who 
can save us from the radicals and hope you will stand by us in 
these uncertain times. We are all loyal and anxious to regain 
our former place in the union I myself was like many in the 
South for the union all the while, but powerless to do good. I am 
now the Post Master at this place, the only man who would be 
troubled with the office & that could take the required oaths I 
will feel proud to know you have not forgotten me and with many 
good wishes for your health and prosperity have the honor of 
subscribing myself your 

Most Obt Svt 



370 The North Carolina Historical Review 

From Jonathan Worth 

Copy 

State of North Carolina 

Executive Department, 
Raleigh November 30 th 1866 

To His Excellency 
Andrew Johnson 
Sir. 

Col Bomford Military Commandant of this State has trans- 
mitted to me the enclosed Genl Orders from Genl Sickles No 15 
dated Oct. 1st 1866. Col Bomford calls my special attention to 
paragraphs 5 and 6. 

These orders seem to rest on the assumption that the Military 
Commandant of the Department has a right to suspend or annul 
such laws of the State within his Command as he may deem in- 
humane or unwise. 

By the laws of North Carolina the penalty for Larceny, Big- 
amy, and sundry other infamous Crimes is Corporal punishment 
— to wit— whipping. If these orders are carried out, under our 
existing laws, some of these Crimes must go unpunished. The 
5th and 6th paragraphs of these orders, are in Conflict, as I 
Conceive with your Excellencys proclamation, of the 20th Aug. 
last declaring that "Civil authority now exists throughout the 
whole of the United States." 

I do not apprehend any Conflict under other paragraphs of 
these orders resting, as supposed, on the military orders of Genl 
Grant of the 12th January and 1st July last, but having seen it 
stated through the newspapers, that Genl Grant deems these 
orders so essentially modified by your proclamation aforesaid, I 
would be glad to know officially to what extent he deems them 
modified 

I have the honor to be 
Very respectfully 
Your Obt. Servt. 
Governor of N.C. 

From Jonathan Worth 

State of North Carolina 
Executive Department 

Raleigh December 24 th 1866. 
His Excellency 
Andrew Johnson, 
Presdt. United States 
Washington, D.C. 
Sir:- 

In obedience to a resolution of the General Assembly of this 
State, I have the honor to transmit, herewith an authenticated 
copy of a Resolution of that body "respecting the proposed 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 371 

amendment, as the fourteenth article of the Constitution of the 
United States." 70 

I have the honor to be, 
Very Respectfully, 
Yr. Obdt. Servt. 

Gov. 1 " of No. Carolina. 

From William Thompson 

Raleigh [N.C.] January 8 th 1867 
Dear Sir 

The bearer of this Handy Lockheart visits the North in behalf 
of his Color d Brethern as well as his own gratification, he has 
been a servant in my family forty three years, and has at all 
times during this long period, devoted himself to the interest 
of myself and family, with all the energy he could command, 
he has enjoyed all the confidence and good feeling that could 
be bestowed by myself and family in return, which relation has 
not been attended by what has taken place by obtaining his free- 
dom during this long period of servitude on no one occasion has 
there been cause of any kind to find any fault in him it would be 
one of the greatest pleasures I could enjoy to call on you and 
take by the hand one who I believe has the honesty and hearty 
welfare of his Country's good above all other worldly hopes or 
desires may you not be disap[p]ointed of your hopes. I have a 
large share of sympathy for you in the great trials you must 
meet with in your exalted position as Chief of the greatest County 
that exists on the Globe if any opportunity should offer me I 
shall most certainly embrace it to gratify a desire much at heart 
this desire is evinced by the circumstances of the slight acquaint- 
ance I had with your early boyhood as I was a next door neighbor 
to you in the year 1819 th I have not nerve sufficient to say any 
thing to you about these misguided people in those sorely afflicted 
part of the Country who brought all these evils of Self suicide 
upon us be assured Sir my prayers for the whole of this Great 
Country and your desires 

With great respect I am again &c 

From James McMahan 

Marshall North Carolina Jan. 16 th 1867 
Andrew Jackson President of the United States : 
Dear Sir: 

I hope that you will not take it amiss, for an old Jackson 
Soldier to address you, believing as I do, that you are the im- 
bodiment of the Constitution, and one of its ablest defenders, and 

70 The certificate signed by Governor Worth is in the Johnson Papers. The legislature of 
North Carolina rejected the Fourteenth Amendment on December 13. C. L. Harris and 
D. A. Jenkins went to Washington immediately to join W. W. Holden and John Pool who 
had already gone to Washington to confer with the radical leaders. On the same day that 
North Carolina rejected the amendment, Thaddeus Stevens, at the request of the radical 
leaders of the state prepared by Holden and others, introduced a bill in the House of Rep- 
resentatives for the reconstruction of North Carolina. Hamilton, Reconstruction, 186-187. 



372 The North Carolina Historical Review 

who honestly, and fearlessly adhears to its injunctions. And 
whose eventful history has universal [1] y attracted attention, and 
without doubt there is not one but many points in it, which de- 
serve to be noticed. It is a strong plain example of the circuitous 
to providence of God, that is to say of bringing about the ends and 
purposes of his providence by seemingly casual and unsuspected 
means. That is a high doctrine both of natural and revealed 
religion, and is clearly exemplified in your own record. It is an 
useful example at the same time of the protection and final re- 
ward of virtue, though for a season oppressed and caluminated 
and carried through a long series of distress and misfortune, I 
say it is an useful example if rightly understood,and not carried 
too far. I mean that virtue is not always rewared alike this would 
be carrying the thing too far. But shows that the protection of 
providence will be with virtue in all its difficulties- And this 
being believed on good grounds is enough, for the virtuous man 
will be assured, that this protection will keep him in all stages 
of his existence, living and dying he is in its hands. And for the 
same reason that it accompanies him like an invisible guardian 
through his trials it will finally recompense him, This is the true 
application of that doctrine of a directing providence which is 
illustrated by the panorama of incidents connected with your 
importent career, If it could command appropriate language I 
would use it to appreciate the steady and uniform manner that 
you are steering the ship of State Although storms arise I am 
glad that you possess so much prudence and self command. I am 
also glad that our Chief Magistrate is acting so as to render his 
example worthy of emulation Even some professed ministers of 
the religion of the Bible, who are manifestly guilty of denouncing 
the president with unbecoming bitterness, ought to take lessons 
by his conciliating course. Compare the conduct of the president 
with the parable enunciated by Christ in reference to the good 
Samaratan, and contrast with those al[l]uded to above, you will 
find and the reader will be astounded 

I would like to write a great deal but business men do not like 
lengthy letters. I would add a few lines about our State I recon 
the folks think about Washington that we folks are al[l] but 
dangerous but it is quite a mistake we have good Judges and 
Lawyers and peaceable Citizens All that is needed in our entire 
country is to become reconciled to live in peace with each other 
and act according to the golden rule, and be willing to forgive 
each other, And the work of reconstruction will be easy done- 
Fifty two years ago the writer of this little scrap was in Jack- 
son's army, as a private, & was honorably discharged and is the 
only one living in the County There are some few in Hawkins 
County Ten, from the county I went I never have had any 
pension- 

My respects to Brother N.G. Taylor and Judge Patterson 
President Johnson 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 373 

From Nathaniel Boyden and Lewis Hanes 

Office of U.S. Military Telegraph 
Telegram received at War Department 

Washington, D.C. Feb. 15, 1867 
from Raleigh N. C. " 1867 

To His Excellency 

Andrew Johnson 
Prest U.S. 
The new plan of adjustment is hanging fire in our legislature, A 
dispatch from you strongly urging it may secure its passage. Let 
us hear from you at once 71 



[Telegram] 

From Nathan Boyden and Lewis Hanes 

Raleigh N. C. Feb. 16, 1867 
To W. G. Moore 
War Dept 

No action has been had. Strong hopes of success in a few days 
Let your friend come at once.When will he be here Answer 72 

From William Ware Peck 

Salisbury- N. C. 

Fy 20/ 67. 
Hon. A Johnson 
President of U. S. 
D[ea]r Sir. 

If the Bankrupt -Bill has been sent to you for approval-let 
me urge you to veto it without delay or, if you are disposed in 
favor of it, to delay for consideration. A few in the South want 
the law: the great majority of Southern debtors oppose it: & 
because they own the bulk of the real estate, have a defficient 
[sic] but unavailable resources : are now protected only by home 



71 In response to this telegram, President Johnson's secretary replied: 
By U. S. Military Telegraph 

Executive Office 
Washington, D.C. Feb. 16, 1867 
To Hon. N Boyden 
Hon Lewis Haines 
Raleigh, N. C. 

Your despatch of yesterday received. It was hoped that there would be prompt 
action. It would do good at this time. A friend will be at Raleigh without delay, to confer 
with you, if no action shall have been had before this reaches you. Answer. 

W m . G. Moore, 
who conferred with you the night before you left. 

72 Upon the receipt of this telegram, the White House replied : 
By U.S. Military Telegraph 

Executive Office 
Washington, D.C, Feb. 17, 1867. 
To Hon. N. Boyden, 
Hon. Lewis Hanes 
Raleigh, N.C. 

Friend started this morning. 

W m .G. Moore 



374 The North Carolina Historical Review 

stay Laws- There is no extravagance in saying that, were the 
Bill to become a law, the Bulk of the Landed Interest at the 
South would under its involuntary provision be forced to change 
hands in 12 months. A more cruel measure towards the South 
could hardly be devised- 

The parties, whose interests would mainly be advanced by the 
law, are Northern Speculators- 

With respects 

Mrs. W. H. Polk 73 

Warrenton March 4 [1867] 
Mr President 
Sr Sir 

To-day I suppose important events are agitating the Political 
channels of our Republic, I left Washington the Monday after 
the Levee on the 22. d not however ,without making an effort to 
pay my respects to yourself & the ladies of the White House but 
was not so fortunate in seeing you, being informed that the 
President was engaged so I concluded that my Pen might ac- 
complish what my tongue failed to do- 

What I now ask is-at your earliest convenience will you do me 
the kindness to give me a letter endorsing my faithful adherence 
to the Government of the United States, during the War-It may 
be of service to me hereafter, at all events a satisfaction-which 
I am sure will be granted 

I remarked in the presence of a Radical that the President 
would endorse my Loyalty, to which he rather sneeringly replied 
that such an endorsement would avail but little-Woman like I 
must have the last word & I answered with more spirit than 
prudence "perhaps not go under radical rule but reason must 
resume its sway.& with it, a proper appreciation for one who has 
so fearlessly & nobly dared do his duty to his country while 
Radicalism Fanaticism & Heaven knows what other isms threaten 
its destruction. I find great depression here occasioned by the pas- 
sage of the Military bill & anticipations of even more stringent 
measures-business dull-money scarce. "Cuffee" jubilant- alto- 
gether a state of affairs never dreamed of - my reverses have 
been quite as great as most persons- but I try to keep Hope at 
the helm & enspire others with the same feelings. But pardon 
my trespassing so long. With kind regards for the Ladies & best 
wishes for your happiness & success in sweeping every cloud 
from the Political horizon 

Very truly 
Warrenton N.Carolina 



73 Lucy Williams married William H. Polk, the younger brother of President James K. 
Polk. Upon her husband's death in 1862, she returned from Columbia, Tennessee, to her old 
home in Warrenton, North Carolina, with her two children, William H. Polk, born in 
Columbia, Tennessee, in 1862, and Tasker, born in 1860. Lizzie Wilson Montgomery, Sketches 
of Old Warrenton, North Carolina, 267-268, 409. 



Letters to Andrew Johnson 375 

From William T. Thomas 

Telegram received at War Department 

Washington D.C. March 7 1867 
From Raleigh NC " " 1867 
To President Andrew Johnson 

Sir . Please inform me if my communication to you of yesterday 
has been received If so has a copy been sent to the speaker of the 
Senate 

(To be continued) 



BOOK REVIEWS 

A Southern Lawyer; Fifty Years at the Bar. By Aubrey Lee Brooks. (Chapel 
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1950. Pp. xi, 214. $3.50.) 

This autobiography by Aubrey Lee Brooks, distinguished law- 
yer of Greensboro, North Carolina, and author of Walter Clark, 
Fighting Judge, is a readable, mellow, and interesting chapter 
in the contemporary history of the Tar Heel State. It possesses 
an authentic southern flavor which will be enjoyed by home-folk 
and read with profit by those in other sections who wonder why 
and how the South is "different." 

The story has its beginning in 1871 on a plantation in the Old 
Bright Tobacco Belt of Person County, North Carolina. The 
author tells of his cavalier and puritan ancestors and his youth- 
ful Negro companion. After an experience of teaching in a 
country grade school at the age of seventeen, he attended the 
University of North Carolina where he finished the law course 
in 1893. He began the practice of law in Roxboro, but subse- 
quently moved to Guilford County where he literally grew up 
with the City of Greensboro. 

The volume is replete with courtroom anecdotes, political con- 
tests, such as the congressional race between Tom Settle and 
Will Kitchin, and the varied activities of a prosecuting attorney. 
Apprenticeship in the latter office was excellent schooling for 
the general practice of law. 

Generally speaking, the author is to be classified as a southern 
"liberal/' and he was usually aligned with Josephus Daniels and 
Walter Clark in fighting the railroads and the tobacco and power 
trusts. 

During his half century at the bar, he participated in many 
important and some sensational trials. Among those discussed at 
some length are the Cole murder case, the North Carolina Public 
Service Company versus the Duke Power Company, the Cannon- 
Reynolds-Holman case, and the suit brought by the trustees of 
the First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro against the Rich- 
ardsons and the Vick Chemical Company. 

The author tells of fox hunting, foreign travels, and friend- 
ships with William J. Bryan, John W. Davis, Franklin D. Roose- 

[376] 



Book Reviews 377 

velt, and Oliver W. Holmes. "The Romance of the Cigarette" is 
the title of a chapter on the development of this important in- 
dustry. 'The Hartford of the South" is a first-hand account of 
insurance companies which flourished in Greensboro, particularly 
the Jefferson Standard Life of which the author is critical. 

Additional details could be given, but enough has been stated 
to indicate that the author writes with intimate knowledge and 
philosophical perspective. Mr. Brooks is to be congratulated on 
his labor of love. Better still, he is to be congratulated on a life 
and career which carry on the best traditions of the legal pro- 
fession. 

David A. Lockmiller. 

The University of Chattanooga, 
Chattanooga, Tennessee. 



Addresses, Letters and Papers of John Christoph Blucher Ehringhaus, 
Governor of North Carolina, 1933-1937. Edited by David Leroy Corbitt. 
(Raleigh: Council of State, State of North Carolina. 1950. Pp. xxxiii, 509. 
Illustrations, index.) Free upon application. 

J. C. B. Ehringhaus was governor at a trying time in his state's 
history, for from 1933 to 1937 North Carolina was faced with 
many drastic depression problems. His Addresses, Letters and 
Papers indicate his efforts toward solving these and other prob- 
lems of his term of office. That he was a hard-working executive 
is shown by the few examples of his activities which may be 
mentioned here. He attempted sincerely to reduce expenditures 
and to balance his state's budget during years of limited reve- 
nues. He was opposed to depression and "recession" deficit spend- 
ing. Expenditures were cut by one-third, then by even more, thus 
causing state services to be curtailed. As an emergency measure 
and to balance his budget he supported a sales tax. He consoli- 
dated the Highway Department and the Prison Department, and 
he witnessed the first operation of the "greater" University of 
North Carolina. He showed particular interest in promoting the 
welfare of certain basic economic groups of the state, especially 
peanut and tobacco farmers as well as tobacco processors. He 
professed a belief in the principles and program of the "New 
Deal" ; and in most respects he seemed to admire and support 



378 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, that is, as long as such a course seemed 
beneficial to local interests. 

The North Carolina Council of State and the Department of 
Archives and History are to be commended for making available 
in printed form the official papers of the state's governors. As 
reference works, such compilations as the Ehringhaus papers 
serve many useful purposes for students of history and govern- 
ment, public officials, politicians, and others. Ehringhaus's pri- 
vate papers and additional types of historical materials of the 
years 1933-1937, when available, will some day undoubtedly 
throw more light on his activities. Until that time, however, the 
governor's record must rest on his officially recorded acts, most 
of which may be traced in his Addresses, Letters and Papers, and 
on the memories of his supporters and opponents who still live. 
At present too many of his contemporaries remain to permit an 
unbiased appraisal of his actions. Editor Corbitt has therefore 
presented Ehringhaus' papers and allowed them to speak for 
themselves. The editor has followed the general organization 
and arrangement of materials which he has utilized so effectively 
in publishing the letters and papers of six other governors. The 
book contains a biographical sketch of Ehringhaus written by 
W. T. Bost. The sketch is a eulogy of its subject, it is neither un- 
biased nor definitive in any sense, and it fails to maintain the 
high caliber of the rest of the publication. Corbitt has included 
gubernatorial messages, proclamations, addresses, statements to 
the press, letters and telegrams, and miscellaneous items. His 
compilation is concluded with a pertinent list of appointments 
made from 1933 to 1937 which should serve as a convenient 
reference tool. Included is an excellent index and numerous illus- 
trations are incorporated. The work will be one of utility and 
should abundantly justify its publication. 

Weymouth T. Jordan. 

Florida State University, 

Tallahassee, Florida.- * . " 



Book Reviews 379 

South Carolina Goes to War, 1860-1865. By Charles Edward Cauthen. The 
James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science, no. 32. (Chapel 
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1950. Pp. vii, 256. Bibliog- 
raphy, index. $1.25.) 

Mr. Cauthen has made a thorough study of a segment of South 
Carolina history. His researches are based on thirty-four public 
documents, 119 books, pamphlets, and magazine articles, the files 
of nineteen newspapers, and the unpublished correspondence of 
twenty-two South Carolina leaders. He visited the great southern 
manuscript collections in the Library of Congress, in Charleston, 
in Durham, in Chapel Hill, and in Columbia. He worked under the 
exacting guidance of Professors David D. Wallace, Fletcher M. 
Green, and J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, three teacher-scholars 
who, in the twentieth century, have helped to root in the region 
below the Potomac the German and Harvard methods of his- 
torical investigation. 

I am tempted to say that the author of this monograph has 
been too thorough. The composing of these 245 pages on a small 
state during a few years of its existence must have taken many 
years. To paraphrase William McFee's remarks about the modern 
historical novel, this South Carolina study is lightly conceived 
and laboriously executed. Facts crowd out imagination and as- 
sertations are twice proved. No dominant idea or purpose is 
sustained unless the accumulation of more evidence on the sub- 
ject than has been gathered before can be regarded as such. That 
the author wearied of his prodigious researches is evidenced by 
the fact that less than 100 of his 230 pages of narrative are 
devoted to the period after 1861. 

Yet because of his thoroughness Mr. Cauthen has made a 
valuable contribution to the inner history of South Carolina dur- 
ing its crucial period. He writes with the utmost clarity and with 
sound judgment. The absence of an overall theme does not pre- 
vent particular conclusions based on ample evidence. Sometimes 
these conclusions do not conform to the South Carolina legend of 
bravery and devotion; more often they sustain the belief that 
the Palmetto State was among the most stalwart of the Con- 
federate commonwealths. 

The author shows that the state was not entirely guiltless of 
those domestic derelictions which recent historians emphasize 



380 The North Carolina Historical Review 

as potent causes of the failure of the Confederacy. Lack of 
promptness in manning the coastal defenses made possible the 
establishment by the Federals of a dangerous enclave at Port 
Royal. There was much selfish and unintelligent protest against 
the impressment of slaves and goods. An unseemly quarrel went 
on between Governor Pickens and the Executive Council created 
by the Convention of the People. R. B. Rhett emerges as an un- 
attractive figure, a sort of anarchist who poured as much editorial 
venom upon the government at Richmond he helped create as 
upon the government at Washington he tried to crush. 

Mr. Cauthen, on the other hand, demonstrates how ample was 
South Carolina's devotion to the Confederate cause. The state 
was more united than any other in taking the fateful step of 
secession. This is proved by the majority given every secessionist 
candidate in the election of 1860. This unanimity is convincingly 
ascribed to the propaganda of the newspapers and of a group of 
pamphleteers known as The 1860 Association. Unlike the Con- 
federate government, South Carolina knew how to manage her 
war finances. She cooperated more fully with the Conferedate 
authorities than other states. She submitted without much com- 
plaint to conscription and furnished as many soldiers as she 
had white male population between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five. Of the 104,428 men who deserted from the army only 
3,615 were South Carolinians. The state was able to accept defeat 
with the memory of heroic effort. 

The author grapples in the most satisfactory fashion with two 
important issues of the 1860-61 crisis. What was the principal 
motive for secession? Did Lincoln wish to solve the problem of 
Fort Sumter with violence? Fears for the integrity of slavery, 
Mr. Cauthen asserts, prompted South Carolina to leave the 
Union. He proves this point by citing a wealth of published and 
unpublished testimony in which South Carolinians, believing 
slavery was sacred, said they acted in its interest. The author, 
without ignoring the complexity of the issue, believes that Lincoln 
tricked the South Carolinians into firing the first shot at Sumter 
as a means of arousing the vengeful spirits of the North. He 



Book Reviews 381 

sustains this belief by an elaborate array of evidence, cleverly 

including Lincoln's official biographers, Nicolay and Hay. 

Francis B. Simkins. 

Louisiana State University, 
Baton Rouge, La. 



The Houstouns of Georgia. By Edith Duncan Johnston. (Athens: The Univer- 
sity of Georgia Press. 1950. Pp. xiv, 430. $5.00.) 

Miss Johnston, after twenty years of careful and thorough 
research, has written a group biography of several of her noted 
ancestors and collateral relatives. Sir Patrick Houstoun, whose 
family tree is traced back into the shades of antiquity in the 
opening chapter, and his wife had five sons and one daughter, all 
of them prominent in Georgia's public affairs during the Revolu- 
tionary and early national periods. Part I of the book is devoted 
to Sir Patrick and Lady Houstoun, and Part II to their descend- 
ants, the latter constituting three-fourths of the book. 

The Houstouns were constantly in public service for their 
colony and state from the arrival of Patrick (later Sir Patrick) 
in 1734 to the death of John Houstoun Mcintosh in 1836. Sir 
Patrick was president of the council in the colonial period; of 
his sons, Patrick was a Loyalist, George a clubman and civic 
leader in Savannah, John a Revolutionary governor and later 
first mayor of Savannah, James a surgeon in the Continental 
army, and William a delegate to the Continental Congress and 
member of the Constitutional Convention. They were large 
property-owners, Episcopalians, Masons, and board members 
for eleemosynary institutions. The chronicle of their lives gives 
a picture, albeit somewhat confused at times, of the development 
of almost every social and political institution in and near 
Savannah. 

The descendants of these live brothers and their one sister are 
also described by Miss Johnston unto the third and fourth genera- 
tions. The most interesting of these was undoubtedly John 
Houstoun Mcintosh, who was deeply involved in American at- 
tempts to annex East Florida. The pages dealing with this sig- 
nificant figure are probably the best written and the clearest in 
the entire book. 



382 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The plan of treating each brother and his descendants in turn 
somewhat destroys the continuity of the historical picture. The 
Houstouns during the American Revolution would be a topic 
easier of comprehension than the method of returning to the 
Revolution five successive times. All the information the author 
found on any member of the family is brought in, even to Mrs. 
Washington's having slept at the home of the uncle of the wife 
of William Houstoun (p. 338). Each new character is introduced 
by a family tree, although toward the end of the book the trees 
are mercifully relegated to the footnotes. Most of this material 
is irrelevant to the person reading the book for historical in- 
formation; the relevant information would be more readily ac- 
cessible if placed in a chart in the appendix. A map of Savannah 
and the coastal areas of Georgia locating various settlements and 
plantations would also be a valuable aid. 

The book lacks consistency in its citations and there are several 
discrepancies between the citations and the bibliography. At 
times obviously unnecessary quotations from secondary sources 
are used ; at times stray bits of information of doubtful relevancy 
and value are included. The author assumes the reader's com- 
plete familiarity with the purely local Bosomworth controversy 
of 1754 and of a certain commission of peace in 1760, giving no 
details; yet she gives an elaborate if somewhat confused ex- 
planation of the duties of the provincial assembly, in which mat- 
ter Georgia did not differ materially from other royal colonies. 

It is apparent that a thorough piece of research was done by 
the author and her late sister. As a genealogical study, it is 
more interesting than most; as a family biography, it should 
be recognized as a labor of love and read as such. 

Sarah McCulloh Lemmon. 

Meredith College, 
Raleigh, N. C. 



Joel Chandler Harris — Folklorist. By Stella Brewer Brookes. (Athens: The 
University of Georgia Press. 1950. Pp. xvi, 182. $4.00.) 

Although Joel Chandler Harris was not the first author to 
make use of the dialect and stories of the Southern Negro, he 
remains, in his Uncle Remus Tales, the best teller of the Negro's 



Book Reviews 383 

legends in the most accurate reproduction of the Af ric-American 
patois. That the tales continue to delight an audience which has 
all but lost contact with the civilization and the racial type 
exemplified in Uncle Remus is tribute enough to Harris' skill as 
a raconteur. But aside from their purely literary value, the tales 
have an equally great though not so generally recognized sig- 
nificance. Through them, Harris introduced into American litera- 
ture the folk-tales of the Southern Negro and paved the way for 
scientific investigation of Negro folklore. 

Harris was an "accidental folklorist." Interested in everything 
pertaining to the Southern Negro, the legends, the customs, the 
language, he set these things down as no one of his predecessors 
had cared or been able to do. That his re-telling of the legends 
aroused the interest of the scientific folklorist was a thing sur- 
prising and amusing to him : 

To be frank, I did not know much about folk-lore, and I didn't 
think that anybody else did. Imagine my surprise when I began 
to receive letters from learned philologists and folk-lore students 
from England to India, asking all sorts of questions and calling 
upon me to explain how certain stories told in the rice-fields of 
India and on the cotton-fields of Georgia were identical, or sim- 
ilar, or at least akin. . . . What answer could I make to them? 
None — none whatever. All that I know — all that we Southerners 
know — about it, is that every old plantation mammy in the South 
is full of these stories. One thing is certain — the negroes didn't 
get them from the whites ; probably they are of remote African 
origin. 

The character of Uncle Remus was, according to Harris, "a 
. . . human syndicate of three or four old darkies whom I had 
known. I just walloped them together into one person and called 
him 'Uncle Remus.' " Something of the origin of that character — 
and of the great lengths to which Harris went to insure accuracy 
in the tales — is here recorded, with a brief examination of the 
environmental and literary influences to which the folklore 
element in the tales is directly ascribable. Mrs. Brookes has not 
attempted to investigate the origins of the tales themselves. 

Until the publication of this study by Mrs. Brookes, there had 
not been in print any attempt to analyze the folklore content of 
the tales. This work is, primarily, an examination of the ten 



384 The North Carolina Historical Review 

volumes which comprise the Tales and a classification of the 
folklore themes which abound there. These materials are sys- 
tematically arranged under the headings Trickster Tales, Myths, 
Supernatural Tales, Proverbs and Folk-say, Dialect, and Songs. 
For the author, this has been, obviously, a labor of love ; but 
in spite of its undisguised hero-worship, the work is remarkably 
objective. It is carefully documented and scholarly ; nevertheless 
it manages to capture something of the spirit and flavor of the 
Tales themselves and to provide delightful reading. 

Lindsay R. Whichard. 

North Carolina State College, 
Raleigh, N. C. 



The Army Air Forces in World War II. The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan 
(August 1942 to July 1944). Prepared under the editorship of Wesley 
Frank Craven and James Lea Cate by the Air Force Historical Division, 
United States Air Force. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1950. 
vol. IV. Pp. xxxii, 825. Illustrations, citations. $6.00.) 

Volume IV in a projected seven- volume history of the army 
air forces in World War II is the third volume to be published in 
the series being edited by Wesley F. Craven, professor of history, 
New York University, formerly chief, Operational History 
Branch, AAF Historical Office, and James L. Cate, professor of 
history, University of Chicago, formerly head of the Strategic 
Bombardment Section of the same office. The volume relates the 
progress of the war in the Pacific from Guadalcanal to Saipan, 
August, 1942, to July, 1944. 

The first phase of the war in the Pacific has been told in volume 
I. Volume II describes the European theater from August, 1942, 
to December, 1943. This most recent volume tells the story of 
the AAF's role in the contest with Japan during two critical 
years when the barb of the enemy's advance was shorn and the 
slow, painful process of island-hopping was begun to provide 
bases within bomber radius of Honshu. 

Two years of bitter fighting by air, naval, and ground forces 
are recorded in this volume because a history of the army air 
forces without an account of the interrelated and sometimes 
complex role which the AAF played in the total war effort other- 
wise would lose its perspective. It is a well-written, moving story 



Book Reviews 385 

of the unfolding military strategy and tactics. Its perusal will 
give valuable new insights to the layman and will reward also 
the professional tactician. 

The exploits of six Army air forces are narrated in this volume, 
that in the North Pacific, the Central Pacific, the South Pacific, 
the Southwest Pacific, India-Burma, and China. As the editors 
point out, the narrative reflects "inevitably something of the dis- 
jointed nature of the war." There was no unity of command in 
the war against Japan and "even more serious was the lack of a 
common objective (other than the defeat of Japan) among the 
Allied powers." Between the Army and Navy and even among 
the United States generals there was "a lamentable lack of 
accord." 

Perhaps the most inhibiting factor of all was the pre-eminence 
accorded by the Combined Chiefs of Staff to the war against 
Germany. Naval forces in the Pacific were never limited in favor 
of the Atlantic because the prime concern of the Navy for about 
fifty years had been the Pacific, but Army air forces were kept 
at the minimum demanded for safety in the early phases of the 
war and thereafter were circumscribed by the needs of the 
European theater. Commanders in the Pacific ceaselessly pressed 
for reinforcements, and tended to question the validity of the 
over-all strategy whereby the European theater was given top 
priority. ". . . in some instances (as in Alaska and China) their 
reiterated and urgent requests for air reinforcements seemed to 
reflect a parochial view of a global war." The course of the war 
in the Pacific did not turn in favor of the Allies until they had 
built up preponderant air superiority. 

The nature of the air war against Japan contrasted sharply 
with that being fought in Europe and the Mediterranean. Until 
the close of the events related in this volume there was no effort 
at strategic bombing of Japanese war potential, for, until the 
summer of 1944, the Allies held no bases from which they could 
reach Kyushu and Honshu. Nor was the AAF called upon fre- 
quently for close support of ground forces as in Africa, Sicily, 
Italy, and later so effectively in France and Germany. The AAF 
in the Pacific developed, however, great skill in support of am- 
phibious forces in landing operations. 



386 The North Carolina Historical Review 

The pattern of tactics in the Pacific was laid down by the 
Japanese in their assaults upon strategic islands in the months 
immediately following Pearl Harbor, but the United States com- 
manders greatly refined the techniques as they pushed the war 
closer and closer to Japan. The tactics followed the classical 
pattern of first gaining local air superiority, then isolating the 
battlefield, and finally assisting surface forces to move forward. 
The air task in these operations was performed by Army, Marine, 
and Navy air units, land-based, carrier borne, and seaplanes. 
Australian and New Zealand forces were frequently involved as 
well as American. 

Aerial reconnaissance and aerial photography were two im- 
portant functions of the AAF which contributed appreciably to 
shorten the war. For instance, by flying out of Port Moresby, 
New Caledonia, and Espiritu, AAF planes had kept watch on 
the enemy's movements and had helped to chart the area of one 
of the most critical battles in the Pacific. 

The problems of logistics were staggering. Shops and depots 
were more than 7,500 miles from the United States and shipping 
space was scarce. During the early operations from Espiritu, 
for example, the supply of fuel was the most critical single item 
the AAF faced. Steel drums of fuel were dumped over the sides 
of cargo vessels and towed ashore. Since one single B-17 used 
fifty drums for each mission, everyone on the island had to help 
with fueling. On one occasion all available hands from the general 
on down worked a bucket line twenty-four hours straight through 
a driving storm to put 25,000 gallons aboard the bombers. 

Commanders were also faced with the problem of morale. 
Despondency over their inadequate equipment and the poor per- 
formance of the P-40 in comparison to the Jap Zero, primitive 
living conditions, lack of recreation, war weariness, inexperience 
and inadequate training, stagnancy in the promotion list, all 
added to the difficulty of maintaining a high level of efficiency 
among the men who flew the planes. 

The volume closes on an optimistic note. Guadalcanal had been 
won ; the Papuan campaign was over ; the Battle of Bismark Sea 
and Bougainville had been fought. The Japanese position in the 
Solomons and in the New Britain-New Ireland area had collapsed. 



Book Reviews 387 

The Allies had won final victory in New Guinea. With the capture 
of the Marianas a new phase of the Pacific war had begun. Sea- 
bees and aviation engineers were at work on Saipan, Guam, and 
Tinian to begin construction of the bases for the B-29's of the 
Twentieth Air Force. 

In a government such as the United States where national 
policy is so largely shaped by the will of the electorate, it is a 
pity that the vital information contained in such a volume as 
this does not become the common knowledge of all citizens. 

Guion Griffis Johnson. 

Chapel Hill, N. C. 



Guide to the Study and Reading of South Carolina History: a General 
Classified Bibliography. By James Harold Easterby. (Columbia: Historical 
Commission of South Carolina. 1950. Pp. xi, 289. $2.00.) 

South Carolinians and others interested in study of the history 
of that state will welcome this guide. Its inclusion of many 
regional bibliographies and histories will make it useful for the 
study of other southern states as well. 

Procedure for gathering the materials included searching 
bibliographies, contents of the better general historical journals, 
local journals, and card catalogues of the College of Charleston, 
Charleston Library Society, and the South Carolina Library of 
the University of South Carolina. 

Arrangement of the bibliography is patterned on that of Grace 
G. Griffin's Writings on American History with a sectional classi- 
fication by subject and indexes to authors and subjects affording 
easy access to material. Certain sections offer checklists to such 
serial publications as the session laws of the state and the series 
of state documents called "Reports and Resolutions." Sections 
especially interesting to genealogists are those under "Marriage 
and Death Records" and "Epitaphs." Source material is not 
separated from secondary. 

No attempt is made to list every book which mentions the 
state. Works of fiction, articles in popular periodicals and news- 
papers and the contents of specialized bibliographies such as the 
national lists of newspapers compiled by Brigham and Gregory 
have been excluded. The editor who is Director of the Historical 



388 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Commission of South Carolina expresses a conclusion reached 
by all bibliographers that "the work of compilation might have 
been continued profitably for an indefinite time. ... It seemed 
best, however, to fix a deadline . . . and . . . make a progress 
report." This bibliography is much more than that. It is an 
excellent guide to the better writing on the state and offers a 
stimulus to serious research as well as an example that other 
southern states might follow. 

Mary Lindsay Thornton. 

The University of North Carolina, 

Chapel Hill, N. C. 



HISTORICAL NEWS 

Dr. James L. Godfrey of the University of North Carolina has 
been awarded the President's Fellowship of Brown University 
for the coming year. He will be on leave of absence from the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina for the academic year 1951-1952 to do 
research in England on the labor government. 

Dr. L. C. MacKinney of the University of North Carolina has 
been appointed to the council of the Mediaeval Academy of 
America. 

Dr. Dewey W. Grantham, Jr., of the Woman's College of the 
University of North Carolina has been awarded a grant from 
the Social Science Research Council for the coming year. 

Mr. John Beeler and Mr. Lawrence Graves, instructors in 
history at the Woman's College of the University of North Caro- 
lina, have been called to active duty as reserve officers in the 
United States Army. 

Dr. Christopher Crittenden on March 23 spoke to the High 
Point Kiwanis Club on the State Department of Archives and 
History and its program. On April 1 he delivered an address, 
"North Carolina and the Winning of American Independence," 
at the celebration of North Carolina State Sunday at the Wash- 
ington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; and on 
May 19 he attended in Williamsburg, Va., a meeting of the So- 
ciety of American Archivists' Long-Range Planning Committee 
of which he is chairman. 

On April 30 the Unaka Chapter, Daughters of the American 
Colonists, unveiled at Tryon a tablet marking the site where 
Governor William Tryon and the Cherokee Indians signed a 
treaty, 1767, defining the boundary between North Carolina and 
the Cherokee country. 

Mr. D. L. Corbitt, head of the Division of Publications of the 
State Department of Archives and History, addressed the Rotary 

[ 389 ] 



390 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Club of Wendell, N. C. on May 22. His subject was the program 
of the Division of Publications. 

The Historical Society of North Carolina held its spring meet- 
ing on April 14 in Chapel Hill. The afternoon session consisted 
of a brief business meeting after which Dr. L. F. London read a 
paper "The Episcopal Church in North Carolina from 1783 
through 1865," and Dr. Henry S. Stroupe read a paper "The 
Beginning of Religious Journalism in North Carolina, 1825- 
1860." At the evening session Mrs. Inglis Fletcher spoke on the 
subject "The Use of Source Material in the Writing of Historical 
Novels." 

The Student Branch of the American Society of Agricultural 
Engineers initiated through the Department of Archives and 
History the erection of an historical marker which was unveiled 
on May 7 at Mangum Terrace (in Wake County), an early soil- 
erosion-checking terrace constructed by Priestly H. Mangum 
about 1885. The Mangum Terrace has been widely used through 
the United States. The program consisted of addresses by Dr. 
Christopher Crittenden, Dr. J. H. Hilton, and Dr. Clarence Poe. 

Beginning this year the Mayflower Cup will be awarded one 
year for non-fiction and the following year for fiction. In 1951 
the award will be made for non-fiction. All original works of non- 
fiction by persons resident in the state for the past three years 
and published during the year ending August 31, 1951, will be 
eligible. Three copies of each should be sent to Dr. Christopher 
Crittenden, Box 1881, Raleigh. 

In the past all types of works, both fiction and non-fiction, have 
been entered in the competition. The judges and others have com- 
mented that it was difficult to compare adequately books of such 
diverse types — for example, a novel with a study in economics or 
a volume of poetry with a book of sermons. It is believed that the 
new rules, approved by the Board of Assistants of the Society 
of Mayflower Descendants in the state of North Carolina, will 
make it easier to reach a decision. 

The award has been made annually since 1930 by the May- 
flower Society through the State Literary and Historical Asso- 



Historical News 391 

ciation. The winner last year was Max Steele of Chapel Hill for 
his novel "Debby." 

The Mayflower Cup has been placed permanently in the Hall 
of History. The winning author each year receives a replica on 
which are inscribed his name and the name of his book. 

The First Presbyterian Church of Fayetteville, N. C, cele- 
brated its 150th anniversary the week of April 21-29. The church 
was organized in 1800 by the Reverend John Robinson of Cabar- 
rus County, but the celebration was postponed until the arrival 
of a new organ, the gift of Dr. and Mrs. R. L. Pittman, Mr. and 
Mrs. R. L. Pittman, Jr., and Dr. annd Mrs. Wade T. Parker and 
their sons. Several ministers from other states appeared on the 
program during the week's celebration. 

Mrs. Maude Moore Latham, who died in Greensboro April 8, 
left the sum of $1,000,000 in her will to the Try on Palace Com- 
mission for the reconstruction of the governor's mansion in 
colonial North Carolina. Mrs. Latham had previously given ap- 
proximately $500,000 to this project and had in addition pur- 
chased some period furniture for the reconstructed building 
when it should have been completed. Mrs. Latham was a native 
of New Bern and had spent her early life there. 

The Guggenheim Memorial Foundation on April 14 announced 
fellowship awards to Dr. Dougal MacMillan III of the University 
of North Carolina, who will study the dramatic works of John 
Dry den, and Dr. Norman E. Eliason of the University of North 
Carolina, who will study the history of the English language in 
North Carolina. Dr. MacMillan is a native of Washington, N. C, 
and was awarded the Ph.D. degree by the University of North 
Carolina. Dr. Eliason, before coming to North Carolina, was a 
member of the faculty of the University of Florida. 

The North Carolina Society of County Historians made a tour 
of the lower half of Bertie County on April 29. The group met 
at the courthouse in Windsor and from that point visited the 
following places : King House, which was built in 1763 by Wil- 
liam King (the house has brick ends and is one of the few re- 



392 The North Carolina Historical Review 

maining houses with this type of architecture) ; Hope, built in 
1770 by Zedekiah Stone and the birthplace of Governor David 
Stone; Windsor Castle, built about 1855 and formerly the home 
of the Winston family ; Rosefield, the home of John Gray, who 
acquired the property in 1729; St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 
built in 1839 ; Shipyard landing, site of an early Indian village 
and early shipbuilding; Elmwood, a pre-Civil War plantation 
home; Avoca, the history of which dates to colonial times and 
which was originally known as Salmon Creek Plantation and 
the home of Seth Sothel, governor of North Carolina in the 1670's ; 
and Scotch Hall, a plantation beautifully situated at the junction 
of the Albemarle Sound and the Roanoke River. This plantation 
dates to Governor Charles Eden's administration, and the present 
home was built about 1835. A picnic lunch was served the group 
in the yard beside the boxwood avenue. The plantation is now 
owned by Mr. and Mrs. George W. Capehart, Sr., who served as 
guides on the plantation. The Bertie County Historical Associa- 
tion was host for the entire tour and for the lunch. Persons from 
Anson, Harnett, Orange, Wake, Vance, Pasquotank, Chowan, 
and Franklin counties and from Brunswick, Georgia, and Rich- 
mond, Norfolk, and Portsmouth, Virginia, took part in the tour. 

The North Carolina Society of County Historians on May 12 
made a boat trip down the Cape Fear River from Fayetteville 
to Wilmington. The Daughters of the American Revolution at 
Elizabethtown served lunch on the trip down. In Wilmington a 
tour was made of the city. On May 13 the group continued the 
tour down the river to Southport and visited the old town of 
Brunswick and Orton Plantation, which was established in 1725 
by Roger Moore. Approximately forty people went on the tour, 
representing sixteen counties of the state. 

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has announced that 
the David Clark Everest award of $1,000 will be made for the 
best manuscript on Wisconsin economic history submitted to the 
board of award by October 1, 1951. The manuscript must be 
submitted in triplicate. 



Historical News 393 

The American Studies Association was organized March 22, 
1951, by a group of professors and interested individuals meet- 
ing in the Library of Congress. Persons from the University 
of Pennsylvania, Smith College, Case Institute, Johns Hopkins 
University, the University of Maryland, Rutgers University, 
the University of Wisconsin, and the Library of Congress at- 
tended the organizational meeting. A constitution was adopted, 
and the object of the association was stated as follows: "The 
object of this association shall be to encourage the study of 
American civilization. Among the specific ways in which the 
society shall attempt to achieve its object are : the improvement 
of communication across those disciplines which deal with phases 
of American civilization; the fostering of inter-disciplinary 
research and of courses and programs in American civilization." 

The American Council of Learned Societies announces a pro- 
gram of awards for individuals to be designated American Coun- 
cil of Learned Societies Scholars, to be carefully chosen from 
teachers in the humanities temporarily displaced from college and 
university faculties as a result of the defense emergency. The 
candidate must have demonstrated a high degree of scholarly at- 
tainment in one or more of the humanistic disciplines, interpreted 
in general as follows: philosophy, including the philosophy of 
science and the philosophy of law; philology, languages, litera- 
ture, and linguistics; archeology; art history and musicology 
(but not applied art or music) ; history, including the history of 
science and the history of religions; and cultural anthropology, 
including folklore. He must have the doctorate of philosophy or 
its equivalent in training and experience. His university or col- 
lege experience at the faculty level must promise, if it does not 
already demonstrate, distinction as a teacher and scholar. No 
candidate will be considered who, at the time of application, has 
an assured faculty position for 1951-1952. Appointments as 
American Council of Learned Societies Scholars are open only to 
men and women who are citizens of the United States. The sti- 
pend for an American Council of Learned Societies Scholar will 
normally be the equivalent of the salary earned by the candidate 
during the academic year 1950-1951, although in no case will it 



394 The North Carolina Historical Review 

exceed five thousand dollars. Application forms should be re- 
quested immediately from the Secretary for American Council 
of Learned Societies Scholars, American Council of Learned 
Societies, 1210 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington 6, D. C. 



CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE 

Miss Fannie Memory Farmer is an administrative assistant 
with the State Board of Public Welfare, Raleigh, N. C. 

Dr. James Atkins Shackford is an assistant professor of Eng- 
lish at North Carolina State College, Raleigh, N. C. 

Dr. Donald J. Ruifs is an assistant professor of English at 
North Carolina State College, Raleigh, N. C. 

Mr. W. H. G. Armytage is a lecturer in education in the Uni- 
versity of Sheffield, Sheffield, England. 

Dr. Elizabeth G. McPherson is a reference consultant of the 
Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, Washington, 
D. C. 



L 3% I 



The North Carolina 
Historical Review 

Volume XXVIII OCTOBER, 1951 Number 4 

CONTENTS 

DAVID CALDWELL AND HIS LOG COLLEGE 399 

Aubrey Lee Brooks 

THE POEMS OF PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE TO 

FRANCES CHRISTINE FISHER 408 

Francis B. Dedmond 

CATAWBA SPRINGS— CAROLINA'S SPA 414 

Chalmers G. Davidson 



THE CAROLINA BRIGADE SENT AGAINST THE 

CREEK INDIANS IN 1814 421 

John K. Mahon 



THE GENESIS OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 

DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1701-1823 426 

Sarah McCulloh Lemmon 

THE PROFESSIONAL THEATER IN 

WILMINGTON, 1900-1930 463 

Donald J. Rulfs 

LETTERS FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO 

ANDREW JOHNSON 486 

Elizabeth Gregory McPherson 



Entered as second-class matter September 29, 1928, at the Post Office at 
Raleigh, North Carolina, under the act of March 3, 1879. 



BOOK REVIEWS 517 

Speck's and Bloom's Cherokee Dance and Drama — By 
Douglas L. Rights ; Wilburn's Junaluska — By Doug- 
las L. Rights; Hendricks's Biography of a Country 
Church — By Paul Murray ; Whitaker's, Cook's, and 
White's Centenial History of Alamance County — By 
Douglas L. Rights ; Easterby's The Colonial Records 
of South Carolina — The Journal of the Commons House 
of Assembly, November 10, 1736-June 7, 1739 — By 
Leonard W. Labaree ; Mason's James Harrod of Ken- 
tucky — By Bennett H. Wall ; McMahan's The People 
of Atlanta: A Demographic Study of Georgia's Capital 
City— By Paul M. McCain; Dyer's The Gallant 
Hood — By Alice B. Keith ; Proctor's Napoleon Bona- 
parte Broward — By Cecil Johnson ; Griffith's Yours 
Till Death: Civil War Letters of John W. Cotton — By 
Fannie Memory Farmer; Overdyke's The Know- 
Nothing Party in the South — By Fletcher M. Green; 
Harwell's Songs of the Confederacy — By Christian D. 
Kutschinski; Wallace's Appeal to Arms: A Military 
History of the American Revolution — By Hugh T. 
Lefler; Grummond's Envoy to Caracas: The Story of 
John G. A. Williamson, Nineteenth-Century Diplomat — 
By J. Fred Rippy. 

HISTORICAL NEWS 537 



The North Carolina 
Historical Review 

Volume XXVIII OCTOBER, 1951 Number 4 

DAVID CALDWELL AND HIS LOG COLLEGE 1 
By Aubrey Lee Brooks 

I am not sure whether I was invited to prepare a paper on 
David Caldwell or on his log college which he conducted for forty 
years, but since things which are equal to each other are equal to 
the same thing, Dr. Caldwell and his log college form an in- 
separable and composite picture of one of the South's early edu- 
cational institutions. 

Judge Archibald Murphey in an address before the literary 
societies of the University of North Carolina in 1827 said : "The 
most prominent and useful of the early schools was kept by Dr. 
David Caldwell of Guilford County. . . . The usefulness of Dr. 
Caldwell to the literature of North Carolina will never be suffi- 
ciently appreciated." 2 Dr. Charles Lee Smith, in a sketch of Dr. 
Caldwell, said : "His history is more identified with the moral and 
educational history of North Carolina than is that of any 
other one man of the 18th century." 3 Notwithstanding these 
encomiums — which all of our contemporary authors confirm — the 
fact still remains that our memory of Dr. Caldwell seems to have 
gone into an eclipse. 

In order to appreciate what the man did and the circumstances 
under which it was accomplished, it is important to know some- 
thing of the history of his life. The early years of David Caldwell 
constitute a striking prelude to his accomplishments in later life. 
He was born on a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, farm in 1725, 
the eldest of four sons. When he was seventeen years old his 
father apprenticed him to a house mechanic with whom he worked 
until he became twenty-one years of age. He then worked four 



1 A paper read at the meeting of the Historical Society of North Carolina at University of 
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Nov. 4, 1949. 

2 William Henry Hoyt, editor, The Papers of Archibald D. Murphey (Raleigh: The North 
Carolina Historical Commission, 1914), II, 355-356. 

3 Charles Lee Smith, The History of Education in North Carolina (Bureau of Education, 
Contributions to American History, No. 3. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1888), 30. 

[399] 



400 The North Carolina Historical Review 

more years on his own account as a house carpenter. Upon reach- 
ing the age of twenty-five he had but little education and was 
apparently unambitious. About this time he attended a religious 
revival and was converted. With his spiritual awakening came 
a consuming desire to obtain an education and to devote his life 
to the service of mankind both intellectually and spiritually. With 
a religious fervor and a supreme determination, he started from 
scratch, first in a grammar school through all the grades, and 
thence to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) 
where he entered the freshman class. At the time he became a 
student at Princeton the requirements for admission to the 
freshman class were as follows: "Candidates for admission into 
the lowest or freshman class must be capable of composing gram- 
matical Latin, translating Virgil, Cicero's Orations and the Four 
Evangelists in Greek — and by a later order must understand the 
principal rules of vulgar arithmetic." With these entrance re- 
quirements, imagine the requirements of the sophomore, junior, 
and senior classes. It is recorded that he frequently studied all 
night — sitting up with his clothes on — nothing daunted him, for 
he had a great vision and an insatiable desire for learning. 

When Caldwell finally graduated from Princeton he taught 
school a year, then returned to Princeton to study for the minis- 
try, and instructed classes in Greek while completing his course 
in theology. He thus devoted fourteen years of his life to becoming 
a finished scholar in the classics and in theology. Before actively 
entering the ministry he was submitted to the most gruelling 
tests by the Synods of Pennsylvania and New York (which he 
passed with honors) and finally in 1765 was ordained a minister. 
He was among the first of the Presbyterian ministers who came 
to North Carolina to join that ever increasing host of Scotch and 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who had taken up residence in the 
state and who have contributed so much to the intellectual and 
religious culture of the state. 

While studying for the ministry at Princeton he had promised 
some of his neighbors who were removing from Pennsylvania 
to the North Carolina colony that when he had finished his educa- 
tion he would join them. This he did. Two churches — the Ala- 
mance and the Buffalo — had been organized in what was later 
to be Guilford County, and he was installed as pastor of both — 



David Caldwell and his Log College 401 

a position which he retained for sixty years — but more of this 
later on. 

In 1766, four years before the county of Guilford was estab- 
lished, David Caldwell married Rachel Craighead, the daughter 
of Dr. Alexander Craighead, of Charlotte, and they established 
their home a few miles west of what is now Greensboro. His 
salary as minister of the two churches was only $200 a year, to 
be paid in grain. Since this meagre income would not support him 
and his family, he purchased a farm, built a two-story log cabin 
with a chimney in the middle, and opened there a school. With 
two short intermissions occasioned by the Revolutionary War, 
he continued to conduct this school for forty years — and what a 
school : Caruthers says that it attained the greatest reputation of 
any school south of the Potomac River. Students came there from 
many parts of North Carolina and from every state in the South. 
There were usually from fifty to sixty students in attendance 
and the majority of them found living accommodations in the 
homes throughout the scattered neighborhood. 4 

This log cabin schoolhouse served North Carolina and the 
South as an academy, a college, and a theological seminary and 
many of his pupils became eminent as statesmen, lawyers, judges, 
physicians, and ministers; some were congressmen and five be- 
came governors of states; seven were licensed by the Orange 
Presbytery in one day and there were not more than three or 
four members of that presbytery who had not been his pupils, 
while nearly all of the young men who came into the Presbyterian 
ministry in North Carolina and in the states to the south and 
west of it for many years had been trained in his school. It was 
said of him that Caldwell was instrumental in bringing more 
men into the learned profession than was any other man of his 
day in the southern states. There were among his students Judge 
Archibald D. Murphey, Judge Spruce McCoy, Governor John M. 
Morehead, Lewis Williams, and many others. His students were 
qualified for entrance into the junior class at Princeton Univer- 
sity and to the University of North Carolina which was estab- 
lished later. Governor Morehead, who attended his school when 
Dr. Caldwell was eighty years old, matriculated at the University 



* E. W. Caruthers, A Sketch of the Life and Character of the Rev. David Caldwell, D. D, 
(Greensboro: Swairo and Sherwood, 1842), 30, 



402 The North Carolina Historical Review 

of North Carolina for the half -advanced junior class and was ever 
ready to pay homage to Dr. Caldwell's instruction and inspiration. 
But the fame of his school rests not only upon the excellence of 
his instruction but also upon the fact of its continuity and 
longevity and the further fact that the school was begun ten 
years before the Declaration of Independence was signed; all of 
the other academies in North Carolina came later and existed 
for a much shorter time. 

As there were no doctors within a twenty-mile radius of his 
home, Caldwell took up the study of medicine and equipped 
himself, along with his other duties and accomplishments, for 
the practice of medicine, which he continued throughout his 
life. 

The wisdom and judgment of Caldwell were not only demon- 
strated in his school and long pastorates of two churches but were 
conspicuously exemplified in the battle of Alamance, which was a 
historic event in the struggle for freedom by the North Carolina 
colonists. It was fought only a few miles from Alamance Church 
and nearly all of the male members of the congregations of both 
his churches were active Regulators and engaged in this battle. 
Governor Tryon came to the battle scene with a force of 1,100 
well-trained and well-equipped men, supplied with a plenty of 
ammunition. The Regulators comprised an unorganized crowd 
of 2,000 poorly equipped men, with little ammunition and minus 
any outstanding leader, when they met in battle array. Caldwell 
was deeply interested in the outcome of the battle because he was 
sympathetic with the purposes of the Regulators, but he doubted 
seriously the wisdom of an open conflict at that time. He was 
present at this battle (but took no part in it) and as an envoy 
sought in every was possible to avoid bloodshed. He visited Gov- 
ernor Tryon's headquarters and undertook to bring about a 
settlement, but in spite of his every effort the conflict was in- 
evitable and proved to be the bloodiest contest between the 
British government and the colonists prior to the Declaration of 
Independence. 

Here again Caldwell displayed his sane leadership by ad- 
vising the Regulators to surrender and await further develop- 
ments. Some of the hotheads among the Regulators at first 
questioned his loyalty, but later he began a series of sermons to 



David Caldwell and his Log College 403 

his congregations on liberty and justice and as a result all of 
his congregation, when the climax came, joined with the other 
colonists in approving the Declaration of Independence. From 
then on he threw his influence and energies in support of the 
Revolution, and his name and fame was known throughout this 
section. When Cornwallis marched his army in, preparatory to 
the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, he encamped his soldiers on 
Caldwell's farm and offered a reward of 200 pounds for Caldwell's 
arrest. From all accounts the depredation of his soldiers was 
complete. They took possession of his home, drove his wife and 
children away, destroyed the furniture, and, worst of all, they 
destroyed his splendid library. To make a complete job of it, 
they secured a big pot and carried his books by the armfuls out 
into the yard and burned them in it. Caldwell had to flee for his 
safety and for weeks lived in a swamp where he had improvised 
a hut. While he was in hiding an interesting incident occurred. 
A company of American soldiers came to Mrs. Caldwell with the 
story that they were revolutionists and wanted to establish a 
connection with her husband. After some parleys, she, being ig- 
norant of the fact that they were Tories, told them where he was 
in hiding. They sought him out the next morning, but he had 
fled. He recounted afterwards that what had actually occurred 
was that while asleep that night he had a dream that Tory 
soldiers had captured him. He awoke in the night, startled from 
the dream, but went to sleep again ; later he had the same dream 
— that he was being sought after. He got up and left his hiding 
place and thus avoided capture. 5 

Caruthers tells of another interesting episode which illustrated 
the character and courage of Mrs. Caldwell and occurred while 
Cornwallis's troops were stationed in her home. The troops were 
pillaging the house and came upon a valuable tablecloth which 
her mother had given her as a bridal present. She grabbed the 
tablecloth and a scuffle for its possession ensued. Realizing that 
she was about to lose it, but still holding on, she faced the crowd 
and with a womanly eloquence asked if they were not born of 
women ; if they had no wives or daughters whom they respected 
and for whose sake they might treat others with more courtesy ? 
A soldier standing a few feet away stepped up and said, "Yes, I 



6 Caruthers, Life of David Caldwell, 216-217. 



404 The North Carolina Historical Review 

have a good wife and you shall not be treated so rudely any 
more." 6 This turned out to be a doctor and after the battle of 
Guilford Courthouse Dr. Caldwell met him, they became friends, 
and he gave Dr. Caldwell a walking cane as a memento of friend- 
ship for assisting him in attending the sick and in cutting off legs 
and arms of the injured soldiers by the wagon load. 

During these strenuous days his school, of course, was 
suspended, but when independence was achieved he resumed his 
teaching and took a prominent part in establishing a new govern- 
ment. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which met in 
Halifax late in 1776, and was likewise a member of the state con- 
stitutional convention that met in Hillsboro in 1788. 

Caldwell and five other ministers organized the Orange Presby- 
tery, which was the first presbytery in the South, and he was for 
many years its recording secretary. He was elected a trustee of 
Liberty Hall Academy in Charlotte in 1777, and when the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina was being organized, he was offered 
the presidency of that institution. My authority for this state- 
ment was, first, Caruthers, "then the historians Foot, Weeks, Dr. 
Charles Lee Smith, and a memorial address by Dr. Alphonso 
Smith at a celebration at Alamance Church. 7 On account of his 
advancing years and of his having already established a school 
which was drawing boys from all of the states south of the 
Potomac River, he declined the honor. The University later con- 
ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Archibald 
Henderson says that "During the early years of the University's 
history, a period when Tom Paine's Age of Reason exercised a 
blighting influence upon the people of the young republic, the 
Faculty was not immune to or unaffected by its demoralizing 
philosophy which flowed directly from the French Revolution. 
Indeed the first 'presiding professor,' David Ker, was a pro- 
nounced infidel, Professor Charles W. Harris was strongly in- 
fluenced in the same direction, Professor Samuel Allen Holmes, 
according to President Caldwell, 'embraced and taught the 
wildest principles of licentiousness.' Nicholas Delveaux, Head- 

6 Caruthers, Life of David Caldwell, 243. 

7 Caruthers, Life of David Caldwell, 265; William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, 
Historical and Biographical (New York: Robert Carter, 1846), 242; Stephen B. Weeks, 
"David Caldwell," Biographical History of North Carolina (Greensboro, Charles L. Van Nop- 
pen, 1905), I, 212; Smith, History of Education in North Carolina, 32; C. Alphonso Smith, 
"Presbyterians in Educational Work in North Carolina since 1813: Address at the Centennial 
Celebration of the Synod of North Carolina in Alamance Church, Guilford County, October 7, 
1913," The Union Seminary Review (Richmond), December, 1913-January, 1914, 3 (reprint). 



David Caldwell and his Log College 405 

master of the Preparatory School, was a recusant Roman Catho- 
lic monk, and even Davie, the founder of the University, was not 
a church member, had imbibed something of the prevalent 
scepticism, and entertained a strong antipathy to priests and 
pulpit influence. " 8 

It is possible that the true reason for the saintly Dr. Caldwell's 
not accepting the presidency was that he decided that the com- 
pany of these gentlemen would not be agreeable. 

Dr. Caldwell's personal habits were most exemplary. He did not 
use tobacco in any form nor spirituous liquors. He regularly 
retired at 10:00 o'clock and arose at 4:00. His physical exercise 
was equally well ordered — consisted of going each day out on 
the meadows of his farm and digging ditches to drain his lands. 

This sketch would not be complete without mentioning his 
wonderful helpmate. Mrs. Caldwell was a great Christian char- 
acter, a faithful wife, and a devoted mother. It was said jocularly 
by some of their students that "Dr. Caldwell educated them but 
that Mrs. Caldwell made preachers of them." She had nine chil- 
dren — eight boys and one girl — and considering their joint labors 
and love, she is entitled to rank with him in his high accomplish- 
ments. She was blessed with fine health, as was evidenced by the 
fact that in four years she had five babies. One of the chapters of 
the Daughters of the American Revolution in Guilford County 
is named the "Rachel Caldwell Chapter" in honor of her and they 
have erected a marker near the spot where the Caldwell home 
was located. 

An interesting story is told of an occurrence which took place 
at the old Guilford Courthouse (now Guilford Battleground Park) 
before its removal to Greensboro. Judge McCoy was holding 
court and wished to appoint a permanent clerk of court. There 
were several candidates, but he finally sent for Dr. Caldwell, who 
had been his former teacher, and asked if one of his sons would 
not make a suitable clerk for the office. The doctor thought not, 
as none of them had had any special training for such a job. The 
judge insisted that he think it over and report to him the next 
day. Dr. Caldwell returned the next morning with his son, 
Thomas, saluted the judge, and said : "Well, Judge, here he is — I 



8 Archibald Henderson, The Campus of the First State University, 64. 



406 The North Carolina Historical Review 

have done the best I could." The judge appointed Thomas Cald- 
well, and he held the office for forty years. 

Caldwell served the two churches — Alamance and Buffalo — 
for sixty years and was succeeded by Dr. Ely Caruthers, his 
biographer, who remained the pastor of these two churches for 
thirty-six years — making a total of ninety-six years by these 
two men. I doubt if there is any similar example to be found in 
the South. Caruthers quotes the Rev. E. B. Currie, one of Dr. 
Caldwell's oldest pupils, as saying that "Dr. Caldwell, as a 
teacher, was probably more useful to the church than any one 
man in the United States. I could name about forty ministers who 
received their education in whole or in part from him; and how 
many more I cannot tell ; but his log cabin served for many years 
to North Carolina as an Academy, a College and a Theological 
Seminary. His manner of governing his school, family and 
churches was very much the same, that is, on the mild and pa- 
ternal plan, generally attended with some wit and pleasant 
humor." 9 Caruthers records another interesting fact: that during 
the long period of forty years that Caldwell taught he never 
expelled a single student. They admired him, they loved him, and 
they reverenced him, and Caruthers cites another incident about 
a boy whom he had to chastize severely while in his school re- 
turning afterwards, an old man, riding 300 miles from Georgia 
to the scene of his childhood. Upon learning that Dr. Caldwell was 
still living he visited him to see him once more before he died. 10 

Dr. Caldwell lived to the ripe age of ninety-nine, and his wife 
followed him in death within a year, a fact which often is true 
of devoted couples. 

While the scholarship, the learning, the devotion, and the 
service of this great man seem to have been forgotten, I cannot 
conclude this appreciation without recording the fact that David 
Caldwell, though dead, still lives. His influence as educator, 
theologian, and preacher has been profound in the subsequent life 
of Guilford County. It has taken up the torch of education which 
he held aloof so long, and has stressed education as one of the 
chief concerns of man; it established the first public school for 
both races supported by taxation in this state; it gave to the 



9 Caruthers, Life of David Caldwell, 37. 

10 Caruthers, Life of David Caldwell, 35. 



David Caldwell and his Log College 407 

state its first Superintendent of Common Schools; it has today 
more institutions of learning for both white and black than any 
other county in the state. In the religious world, the two churches 
which he served so long have continued to function with an ever 
growing influence. His spiritual zeal and example have survived 
throughout the years, until today there are more churches in 
Guilford County, including High Point, than in any county in 
the state, and it has the largest population of any county in the 
state. 11 His teachings laid the foundation for the county's sense 
of morals, justice and liberty — aided by the presence of a large 
Quaker element which likewise has stood for God and education. 



11 The 1950 census showed that Mecklenburg County ranked first in population in the 
state, with Guilford second. The Editors. 



THE POEMS OF PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE TO 
FRANCES CHRISTINE FISHER 

By Francis B. Dedmond 

Late in 1870 Frances Christine Fisher's first novel, Valerie 
Aylmer, appeared under the pseudonym of Christian Reid. 1 So 
popular was the novel that "eighteen thousand, seven hundred 
copies were sold in a few months. ,,2 One of those who wrote to 
Miss Fisher, congratulating her on her success as a novelist, was 
the southern literary critic and poet, Paul Hamilton Hayne. Miss 
Fisher, obviously flattered, replied to Hayne's letter : 

I have you to thank for the greatest gratification, as a writer, 
which the publication of "Valerie Aylmer" has given me. "This is 
something to be proud of," was my thought, as I finished reading 
your most kind and flattering letter. . . . But your words of cheer, 
cheer me indeed. I thank you most heartily for them: for the 
generous warmth with which you extend your hand to welcome 
into the ranks where you have so long held honored place a young 
recruit, whose highest aspiration is to render some service, how- 
ever little it may be, in the field you point out — the literature of 
our land. 3 

Hayne replied to Miss Fisher's letter, and between them de- 
veloped a very warm literary friendship and lively correspond- 
ence which lasted until 1878. Hayne sent many of his poems to 
Miss Fisher for her criticism; and she, in turn, discussed with 
him the many problems which beset her as a southern novelist 
of the post-Civil War period. As a consequence of this friendship 
and because Miss Fisher seemed to have such a heartfelt appre- 
ciation for his poetry, Hayne wrote at least three poems to her, 4 



1 Under the pseudonym Christian Reid, Miss Fisher (later Mrs. Frances Christine Fisher 
Tiernan) published between 1870 and her death in 1920 no less than forty-one novels and 
four "novelettes." In addition to her fiction, she wrote a number of poems, many of which 
were published in Appleton's Journal but which have never been collected. 

2 Kate Harbes Becker, Biography of Christian Reid (n.p., n.d.), 20. 

3 Frances C. Fisher to Paul Hamilton Hayne, Salisbury, N. C., January 25, 1871, in the 
Paul Hamilton Hayne Collection of Duke University. All letters quoted in this article are in 
this collection. Permission to quote from this letter and other letters and material in the 
Hayne Collection was graciously given by the Duke University Library, Durham, N. C. 

4 A fourth poem, "Valerie's Confession," may have been written to Miss Fisher although 
this is pure conjecture since Miss Fisher nowhere mentions the poem in her correspondence 
with Hayne. The poem is inscribed "To A Friend." Whether this friend is Miss Fisher is 
impossible to determine. However, the heroine of the poem is not only identical in name, but 
in character with the heroine of Valerie Aylmer. The poem is a whimsical character study 
of the coquette Valerie, set, to a large extent, against the background of the plot and situa- 
tions of Miss Fisher's Valerie Aylmer. Hayne included "Valerie's Confession" among the 
humorous poems in Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne (Boston: Lothrop Publishing Company, 
1882). 

[ 408 ] 



Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne 409 

none of which, however, are included in the collected edition of 
the Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne, which appeared in 1882, a 
few years before his death ; and they have remained uncollected. 
In his second letter to Miss Fisher, Hayne enclosed the follow- 
ing sonnet, which was published a few months later in Appleton's 
Journal: 

SONNET 
To the Authoress of "Valerie Aylmer." 

Flushed in the blended dawn of youth and art 

Thou stand'st, sweet Priestess ! their fresh splendors 
spread, 

Half halo-wise, around thy radiant head, 
And all their soft enchantments in thy heart ; 
Heaven grant thee grace to bear thy glorious part 

In the brave toils to which thy soul is wed ; 

May all thy winged fancies, nobly sped, 
Like birds of happy omen, range the mart, 

And wild alike, to find their favored rest, 
(Laden with olive-leaves, and sprays of love), 

In many a troubled home and anguished breast ; 

And ever may thy mind's aspiring aim 
Glance sunward, fixed on shining goals, above 
The transient glowworm lights of mortal fame ! 5 

Again delighted and perhaps overawed, Miss Fisher wrote to 
Hayne : 

Dear Sir, how can I sufficiently express my sense of the honor 
you have done me! Praise from you in any shape is something 
that it is right hard to keep the head steady under, but praise in 
one of your matchless sonnets — I cannot help wondering a little 
if I am awake ! The verse is most beautiful — what is not beauti- 
ful that comes from your hand, and comes in this shape ? — and I 
thank you from my heart for putting in such graceful form the 
kind praise and warm wishes that have already cheered me in- 
expressibly, that would make me very vain, if I did not know so 
well that I am indebted to your partial kindness more than to my 
own merit for them. To say that I am proud of such an offering — 
such a poet's gift — as this, would be to say very little indeed. I 
was more gratified, more deeply touched than I can express. If 
words were only at my command — but, ah ! words never are — I 
should like to tell you to what degree I felt your "token of good 
will." 6 



5 Appleton's Journal, V (May 6, 1871), 524. 

6 Frances C. Fisher to Paul Hamilton Hayne, Salisbury, N. C, February 9, 1871. 



410 The North Carolina Historical Review 

Later, after the publication of the sonnet in Appleton's Journal, 
Miss Fisher wrote to Hayne from Baltimore, where she was 
visiting : 

Necessity — the necessity of various pressing engagements — 
compels me to close this letter just here; yet I must first tell you 
that two or three of my most intimate friends came in last night, 
all flushed and smiling, and delightfully cordial, to congratulate 
me on — what do you suppose? Your beautiful sonnet which has 
at last made it's [sic] appearance in "Appleton." 7 

After exchanging a few very cordial letters which gave 
promise of an enduring friendship, Miss Fisher felt that some 
of the formality of the earlier letters could be dropped. 

Dear Mr. Hayne : — 

May I venture to call you so ? 'Dear Sir' is exceedingly formal, 
and seems to me as if it should be used for ceremonious occasions 
and business purposes only. Your letters— which lie before me — 
are so very kind and cordial that I cannot believe you will think I 
have taken a liberty in addressing you as I address my old and 
dear friends. 8 

In his reply, Hayne enclosed "The Question," his poetic answer 
to Miss Fisher's question. A manuscript copy of the poem was 
sent to Miss Fisher; and, at the same time, Hayne sent a copy 
of it to the Banner of the South and Planter's Journal, an Au- 
gusta, Georgia, weekly newspaper, where it was published on 
March 11, 1871, just one week after Miss Fisher's original ques- 
tion. The poem as reprinted here is from Hayne's own clipping 
of the poem, on the margin of which he corrected in pencil the 
obvious typographical errors which the newspaper had made. 

THE QUESTION 

By Paul H. Hayne 

To 

Wilt be my friend? — your fresh young mind, 
As healthful* as this vernal wind, 
Breathes o'er my life, and sweeps apart 
Some morbid mists that clogged my heart ; 
In youth like yours, my youth I see 



7 Frances C. Fisher to Paul Hamilton Hayne, Baltimore, Md., April 26, 1871. 

8 Frances C. Fisher to Paul Hamilton Hayne, Salisbury, N. C, March 4, 1871. 

* For healthful the newspaper had erroneously printed beautiful, and Hayne corrected 
this in the margin. 



Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne 411 

Revived in golden verity : 
In faith like yours, my faith returns, — 
While strong, aspiring fancy burns 
Toward those cordial heights of Art, 
(Whose glory made my pulses start, 
And first uplit the generous fire 
Of young ambition's fair desire) — , 
Whereto, I see your steadfast eyes 
Upraise their quiet energies, — 
Born of a soul that God hath passed 
Thro' torturing sorrow's furnace blast, — 
Till nerved to will and sealed with power, 
It grasps Occasion's pregnantf hour, 
And o'er a Hebe's forehead lifts 
That helmet, with the snow-white drifts 
Of wisdom's plume, whose stainless grace 
Makes soft the cold Minerva's face ! 

Wilt be my friend? I ask you this, 
Because tho' wealth of married bliss 
Hath doweredj me with a peace divine — , 
No sister's hand e'er thrilled on mine ; 
And oft a vague want dimly guessed 
Hath stolen like twilight thro' my breast, 
And made my soul a place of sighs ; 
Pardon me then : not all unwise 
Those mystic instincts, which to some, 
(Me often), with weird whispering come, 
To warn of present friend, or foe ; 
Toward You at once my heart did flow, 
Ruled by such spirits as decree 
The banns of serious sympathy, — 
Or yet, the priestly Fate unites, 
'Mid music, and rich altar-lights, 
Those by his gracious will consigned 
To sexless union of the mind. 

I wear your colors in the list 

Of Art and Fancy ! On my wrist 

The sword guard hangs, the blade half bare 

To do you service — when the air 

With golden clarion peals shall ring ; 

But 'mid hot strife, and trumpeting, 

Ever I know the end shall seem 

Clear, keen, and joyous as a dream 

In our youth's prime ; the end wherein, 

Upreared above the applauding din 

Of thousands, on your forehead glows 



t Hayne also corrected the erroneous fragrant to pregnant. 

t The word dowered had been erroneously printed drowned and was corrected by Hayne 
in the margin. 



412 The North Carolina Historical Review 

All woven of lily, and red rose, 

Art's crown of sweet and sovereign grace ; 

Enough! the high Patrician race 

Of genius, with its royal blood 

In you, — shall make my prescience good ; 

So, maiden of the wonderous eyes, 

Like Hebe's soft, Minerva's wise — , 

Farewell ! my knightly faith is yours ! 9 

Shortly after receiving his letter and the poem, Miss Fisher 
wrote to Hayne : 

I wish I was [sic], for this occasion, at least, a poet! I wish 
I was [sic] able to thank you in words as musical and graceful as 
your own for the charming verses you have done me the honor of 
addressing to me, and for the sentiments contained therein, which 
(making all due allowances for poetical license,) are sufficiently 
flattering to merit a most cordial acknowledgment, and warm re- 
turn. The friendship which you offer me in such beautiful form, 
I am only too glad to be able to assure you that your repeated 
kindnesses scarcely make me feel it more, scarcely make me more 
grateful, or more truly your friend, than did your first generous 
cordial letters. ... I am so glad that I said "Dear Mr. Hayne," 
and I feel inclined to say it over again, on the strength of the 
sweet and graceful things which you have said to me! ... I 
should not be human, and above all, I should not be a woman if I 
was [sic] not flattered by your compliments, and by the pledge 
of friendship which is the highest compliment of all. 10 

The friendship continued to grow; and in June, 1873, Hayne, 
accompanied by his son William Hamilton Hayne, spent several 
days at the Fisher home in Salisbury, N. C, which he described 
to his wife as "the most unique family circle you can possibly 
imagine." 11 In January of the next year, Hayne enclosed in a 
letter to Miss Fisher a sonnet in which he reminisced about his 
visit of the summer before. 



To "Christian Reid" 

A summer's morn of calm and deep repose 
An ancient house, whose rafters, dark and vast, 
Speak in mute language of the perished Past — 
While at open window, whence the rose 



9 Banner of the South and Planter's Journal (Augusta, Georgia), March 11, 1871. Hayne's 
own clipping of the poem with his corrections is in the Paul Hamilton Hayne Collection of 
Duke University. The date here assigned for the publication of the poem is not absolutely cer- 
tain. Hayne's clipping is not dated, and no other copy of the poem is known to exist. The 
date here given is the earliest date on which the poem could have been published. 

10 Frances C. Fisher to Paul Hamilton Hayne, Salisbury, N. C, March 15, 1871. 

11 Paul Hamilton Hayne to Mrs. Mary M. Hayne, Richmond, Va., June 18, 1873. 



Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne 413 

Throws its soft shadow from the garden "close." 

Sits one, the very rose of maidenhood! 

Her face is pensive, for a thoughtful mood 
Doth touch its beauty, as on stainless snows 

Rests the mild shade of a half -clouded sun ; 

Ah, me ! what earthly vision lovelier seems 
Than this wherewith mine earnest gaze hath met? 

The uplifted brow ! eyes bright with tear-lit dreams 

Of love, and fame, and passion yet unwon ; 
A virgin Flower, with Fancy's dew-drops wet! 12 

Modestly, Miss Fisher wrote to Hayne : 

I am afraid — indeed I know — that your memory paints our- 
selves and our home in much too flattering colours, my dear 
friend, but I thank you very much for the cordial feeling which 
induces this, and you may be sure that it will be long before I 
shall forget those pleasant days in June, in which we became 
acquainted. In this connection, let me also thank you for the 
beautiful sonnet which you enclose. ... A poet's fancy never, I am 
sure, did more to idealize than you have done in this, for the 
house and garden and face in question might all fail utterly to 
recognize themselves in the graceful and daintily touched picture, 
if it were not possible to look through the golden glamour of 
the poet's fancy to the kindly friendship of the poet's heart. 13 

This sonnet, it seems, Hayne never published; and the manu- 
script was probably destroyed with Miss Fisher's papers follow- 
ing her death in 1920. 14 Fortunately, however, Miss Fisher al- 
lowed the poem to be printed in the Carolina Watchman, Salis- 
bury's weekly newspaper, soon after she received it; and there 
it was preserved. 

The friendship between the novelist and poet continued for at 
least four more years ; but no more poetry to Miss Fisher came 
from Hayne's pen, as far as we are able to ascertain from the let- 
ters which Hayne preserved of his correspondence with her. 



13 Carolina Watchman (Salisbury, N. C.)» February 5, 1874. 

13 Frances C. Fisher to Paul Hamilton Hayne, Salisbury, N. C, January 19, 1874. 

14 Dr. Archibald Henderson of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a cousin of 
Miss Fisher's, has, however, in his possession a copy of the poem in Miss Fisher's hand- 
writing. Dr. Henderson also has a few of her letters, but the bulk of her letters and papers 
were thoughtlessly burned after her death. This tragic error has deprived us of Hayne's 
letters to Miss Fisher — half of the interesting correspondence. 

I am indebted to Mrs. Lyman Cotten of Chapel Hill, also a cousin of Miss Fisher, for her 
invaluable aid in the preparation of this article. 



CATAWBA SPRINGS— CAROLINA'S SPA 
By Chalmers G. Davidson 

The most fashionable society in North Carolina congregated at 
old Catawba Springs in Lincoln County in the days before the 
War Between the States. Few piedmont family papers in the 
Southern Historical Collection at Chapel Hill fail to give some 
reference to this "spa," as the mineral springs resorts were 
called, between the 1790's and the 1850's. 

How early the seven mineral springs of Lincoln County were 
patronized as a resort has not been established. Andre Michaux, 
the French botanist, recorded in his journal that he "Slept at 
Catawba Spring [sic] , eighteen miles from Lincoln," on the night 
of September 12, 1794, 1 but failed to enlighten us with respect to 
either accommodations or companions. The letters of the Brevard 
family give evidence of the popularity of the Springs as a health 
resort during the same decade. Joseph Brevard of Camden, South 
Carolina, wrote to his brother, Captain Alexander Brevard of 
Lincoln County, on October 16, 1796: "Next summer will prob- 
ably be so hot and uncomfortable here as to make me languish 
for the covert of your shady hills and the refreshment of your 
cooling Springs." Two years later Joseph wrote a letter of intro- 
duction for his brother-in-law, Ely Kershaw, who, he says, "in- 
tends to visit the Catawba Springs." The bearer of these letters, 
at a time when there was no postal service, was Captain John 
Reid. 2 

Captain John Reid is the earliest known proprietor and prob- 
ably the originator of Catawba Springs as a resort. He was an 
outstanding man in Lincoln, a veteran of the Revolution, a state 
legislator, and an elder in Unity Presbyterian Church. His posi- 
tion in the community is attested by the fact that he and his 
family occupied one of the two hooded pews, facing the congrega- 
tion, in Unity Church. The other was owned by Captain Alex- 
ander Brevard. 3 This was before the day of the pretense of social 
democracy in Presbyterianism. Across the Catawba River, in 



1 "Extract from the Journal of Andre Michaux," in Shepherd M. Dugger, The Balsam 
Groves of the Grandfather Mountain (Banner Elk, N. C, 1907), 257. 

2 MS. Brevard Papers 1787-1869, North Carolina Department of Archives and History, 
Raleigh. 

3 F. Brevard McDowell, The Broad Axe and the Forge or a Narrative of Unity Church 
Neighborhood (Charlotte, 1897), 3. 

[414] 



Catawba Springs— Carolina's Spa 415 

Mecklenburg County, Hopewell Church had raised tiers for its 
elect. 4 The slaves in both churches, of course, sat in the galleries. 
Captain John Reid died on January 28, 1821, at the age of sixty- 
five and his monumental stone in Unity churchyard is inscribed 
with his many virtues, among them that he was "an officer of the 
Revolution and an honest man." 

Immediately after his death, Catawba Springs was put up for 
sale. One advertisement mentions that the property includes 
"The Mineral Springs and Bathing House" which would indicate 
that the patrons not only drank the healing waters but also 
bathed in them. 5 The most detailed advertisement is found in the 
South Carolina Gazette and Columbian Advertiser (Columbia, 
S. C.) for February 20, 1821 : 

Valuable Property for Sale 
The Catawba Springs, so well known to a large number of the 
citizens of South Carolina, as the resort of invalids and fashion- 
able persons, who wish to avoid sickness and spend the summer 
agreeably, are now offered for sale. Attached to the Springs, is a 
tract of land containing about 600 acres, consisting of a large 
proportion of good meadow and other low grounds, already in 
cultivation. On the premises are built two two-story framed 
houses, well fitted up for the accomodation of single gentlemen, 
and a sufficient number of cabins for the accomodation of fami- 
lies, together with all the outhouses, stabling, &c necessary for 
carrying on the public business of the place. Should a sale not 
be previously made, the business of the next summer will be 
conducted by Mr. Rufus Reid, who is preparing, with great care 
to render the situation of those who may call on him comfortable. 
Adjoining this place, there are for sale, two other small tracts of 
land, containing, one of them 150, the other one hundred acres. 
These places afford high healthy situations, sufficiently near to 
enable the purchaser to enjoy the benefit of the mineral springs. 
. . . For terms, apply to John Reid, Esq. in Columbia, or Mr. 
Alexander M'Corkle, near the Springs. 

Mr. Charles Jugnot took over the Springs as proprietor in 
1825. 6 He was popularly known as "Monsieur Juggernaut," which 
suggests a penchant for running over his customers, but prob- 
ably derived only from the Scotch-Irishmen's intolerance and 
infelicity with "foreign" names. His brief reign witnessed a 
period of considerable popularity. Thomas G. Polk of Charlotte 



4 S.C.P., "Hopewell Church," newspaper article, January, 1863, in scrapbook of E. L. Baxter 
Davidson, Davidson College Library, Davidson, N. C. 

5 Western Carolinian (Salisbury, N. C), August 28, 1821. 

6 The Southern Chronicle (Camden, S. C), May 14, 1825. 



416 The North Carolina Historical Review 

wrote his father on July 17, 1825, "I shall take up my quarters 
occasionally at the Catawba Springs where there is at this time a 
very large assemblage of visitors." 7 The noted Dr. Elisha Mitchell 
"drank of the water of those celebrated Springs" in July, 1827, 8 
and in the same year Mrs. Henry W. Conner, a Charleston belle 
who had married into the piedmont, found the house on the sum- 
mit of a steep hill and the distant view of the little mountains 
delightful — colored no doubt by the rosy hue of her honeymoon. 9 

The wealthy James Chestnuts of Mulberry Plantation near 
Camden sojourned for three weeks in the summer of '25 and ac- 
cording to Frederick A. Porcher it became traditional for low- 
country families around Pineville to repair to the Catawba 
Springs to escape the hot weather. 10 

Essential for the cost to the Calvinistic conscience, the thera- 
peutic value of the Springs was constantly played up in the 
journals, although there is little evidence that the healing of more 
than ennui was accomplished. Professor Denison Olmsted, the 
State Geologist, was quoted in the advertisements as having 
made, in 1824, "a strict analysis of the water and pronounces its 
foreign ingredients to be Sulphuretted Hydrogen, Sulphate of 
Lime, Sulphate of Magnesia, [and] Muriate of Lime." 11 It was 
later asserted that Professor Olmsted, who had since joined the 
faculty of Yale, recommended the waters for the use of all com- 
plaints of liver and debility. 12 

In 1831 Charles Jugnot sold the Springs to William S. Simon- 
ton. In the following year a new post office was established in 
Lincoln County to be called "Catawba Springs" and Simonton 
became postmaster as well as proprietor. 13 It was under his di- 
rection that the most ambitious social event in the history of the 
Springs was staged. According to the Miners and Farmers 
Journal, the dinner and ball at Catawba Springs on July 4, 1831, 
would be an affair of style and elegance never surpassed, if ever 
equalled, in this section. "Among Mr. Simonton's decorations," 
announced the Journal, "there are several paintings designed by 

7 MS. Polk Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Library, 
Chapel Hill. 

8 Kemp P. Battle, ed., Diary of a Geological Tour by Dr. Elisha Mitchell in 1827 and 1828. 
The James Sprunt Historical Monographs, No. 6 (Chapel Hill, N. C, 1905), 66. 

9 Mrs. Henry W. Conner, Diary (typescript), 1827, Southern Historical Collection, Univer- 
sity of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill. 

10 Lawrence Fay Brewster, Summer Migrations and Resorts of South Carolina Low-Country 
Planters (Durham, 1947), 89. 

11 Western Carolinian (Salisbury, N. C), June 15, 1838 (advertisement). 

12 William L. Sherrill, Annals of Lincoln County North Carolina (Charlotte, 1937), 103. 
18 Sherrill, Annals of Lincoln County, 103-104. 



Catawba Springs — Carolina's Spa 417 

Mrs. Justis and executed by Mr. Welfart of Salem which does 
credit to his genius and taste. The Eagle is a neat, elegant paint- 
ing, they are all really beautiful and cannot fail to please. The 
decorations and embellishments of the room and table will be 
novel, tasteful and appropriate. The dinner will be on the table 
at three o'clock and will consist of every delicacy that the country 
and market affords. Mr. Baron, a first rate cook, is engaged to 
prepare the dinner and the epicure may promise himself a rich 
repast prepared to his own taste. Good music is engaged for the 
Ball, and the Ladies 'man's last, best gift' will find their pleasure 
and amusement not forgot." 14 

After five years as proprietor, William S. Simonton advertised 
the Springs for sale: "700 acre plantation, houses want no re- 
pair, are sufficient for entertaining 60 or 70 boarders with fine 
Stablery, Carriage-house and Threshing Machine. Application 
may be made to the following agents: Maj. H. W. Conner of 
Salisbury ; James A. Johnston, Esq., Charlotte ; C. C. Henderson, 
Esq., Lincolnton ; A. M. Burton, Esq. of Beattie's Ford." 15 

In 1838 Joseph W. Hampton became proprietor and notified 
prospective patrons that he was repairing and fitting up the 
Springs "at considerable expense and in a superior style" and 
would be ready for company by May 20. He reminded the readers 
of the newspapers that the resort was "situated on the great 
Eastern and Western line of Stages, from Salisbury, via Lincoln- 
ton to Asheville, etc. . . ," 16 

For the period of the Hampton proprietorship, the guest regis- 
ters are preserved in the library of Davidson College. These date 
from 1838 to 1854 and are a gold mine for the social historian, 
especially one who writes with a capital "S." Names occurring 
frequently from the North Carolina piedmont are the Grahams, 
Brevards, Guions, Ramsours, and Shipps from Lincoln; the 
Chamberses and Lockes from Rowan ; and the Alexanders, Cald- 
wells, Davidsons, and Polks from Mecklenburg. 

Apparently, students at Davidson College caught the coach to 
the Springs as they now thumb rides to the beaches and moun- 
tains. The registers are full of guests giving Davidson College as 



14 The Miners and Farmers Journal (Charlotte, N. C), June 29, 1831. 

15 Western Carolinian (Salisbury, N. C), November 14, 1835 (advertisement dated Sept. 
26, 1835). 

16 Western Carolinian (Salisbury, N. C), June 16, 1838 (advertisement dated March 16, 
1838). 



418 The North Carolina Historical Review 

"Home." Signing the register provided an irresistible temptation 
to college humor. "Maj. G 1 . Tommy A. Wilson, Esq." of the sopho- 
more class was a guest in the fall of 1847. His martial ambitions 
tragically bore fruit in the Confederate Army, where he died as a 
lieutenant in 1862. 17 

Since proprietor Hampton was of the same family as the 
famous Wade Hamptons of South Carolina, he knew how to at- 
tract the elite from the Palmetto State. From the up-country 
came the Hemphills, Gastons, Springses, and Lattas; from the 
sandhills Boykins and Canteys; and from the low country the 
Pawleys, Sinklers, Hugers, Warings, and Deases. There were 
frequent guests also from the deep southern states of Mississippi, 
Alabama, and Louisiana. 

Among the more notable autographs is that of the mysterious 
exotic of the Carolina piedmont, P. S. Ney, who enjoyed his 
legend in his own day and delighted in it. On September 20, 1841, 
in the column allotted to home identifications he inscribed, "An 
atom floating on the atmosphere of chance." During the early 
'40's Ney conducted a school for boys at the resort. The academy 
was known as "Stewart's Seminary" and left an indelible im- 
pression on the many students later called upon for reminis- 
cences by the Reverend James A. Weston. In 1895 Weston pub- 
lished his volume, Historic Doubts as to the Execution of 
Marshal Ney, in order to substantiate his belief that P. S. Ney 
of Carolina and Marshal Ney of France were one and the same. 
Time worked to the advantage of the subject. In 1892 Alexander 
F. Brevard wrote Weston that "There could be no better teacher, 
and everybody had the sincerest esteem for him whether he was 
drunk or sober." 18 But in 1842 he had written his father (in a 
letter preserved in the North Carolina Department of Archives 
and History at Raleigh) : "I do not like him much as a teacher 
because he does not teach like any other person." And his brother 
had added a note: "Mr. Ney does not parse a bit he is old and 
crabit he makes the boys stand about & when he whips he whips 
them over the head and beats them with his fist." 19 

Other local notables in the realm of the arts were Philo Hen- 
derson, the poet, and Mittag, 20 the portrait painter, who no doubt 

17 T. W. Linerle, ed., Alumni Catalog of Davidson College 1837-1924- (Charlotte, 1924), 58. 

18 James A. Weston, Historic Doubts as to the Execution of Marshal Ney (New York, 1895), 
200. 

1! » Alexander F. Brevard to R. A. Brevard, March 19, 1842, MS. Brevard Papers, 1787-1869. 
20 MS. Catawba Springs Registers 1838-1854, Davidson College, Davidson, N. C. Henderson. 
Auguot 4, 1845; Mittag, Sept. 4, 1838, 



Catawba Springs — Carolina's Spa 419 

found ready sitters amongst the boarders, as there does not seem 
to have been a great deal else to do. Fox hunts were indulged in 
by the younger spirits while the more sedate took their pleasure 
in attending meeting at Unity Presbyterian Church a few miles 
distant. 

Among the most valuable records preserved by the Catawba 
Springs registers are the names of the plantations from which 
many of the patrons came. It appears that Alexander F. Gaston 
called his home site "Ravenna" (formerly "Ingleside" of the 
Forneys) . The Forneys lived at "Mount Welcome" and the Gra- 
hams at "Vesuvius Furnace." The Stirewalts' small gem of a 
house, "Mill Hill," is still in good preservation in Cabarrus 
County, as is the Reid mansion, "Mount Mourne," in Iredell. 
Many of these names were later taken over to denote the villages 
which grew up around the plantations. 

Tragedy at the Springs rarely found its way into the records, 
but there is more than a hint of it on the most elaborate grave- 
stone in Unity Churchyard. The young wife of William J. Den- 
nis of St. Johns Berkeley, Charleston District, "departed this 
life when on a visit at the Catawba Springs the 29th September 
1833, aged 23 years. ..." A wedding journey might end as well 
as begin at Catawba Springs. 

There was also at least one murder. 

Early in the history of this hotel, one of the proprietors retired 
about 11 o'clock, after snuffing out the candle. Next morning, he 
was found in bed with his throat cut from ear to ear, a lifeless 
corpse, his blood saturating the bed and much under the bed on 
the floor. It is claimed that those blood stains remained on the 
floor until recent years when this part of it was chiseled out and 
replaced with clean boards. An old saying is "The blood of the 
murdered cannot be washed up." This death remained a mystery 
until many years after, when the self-confessed killer on his 
death bed, told his story. Aggrieved by a serious social sin com- 
mitted by the dead man, he had been seen among a number of 
people in Salisbury during the evening and night until about ten 
o'clock when he went to his room to retire. Immediately there- 
after, in disguise, he mounted his horse and ran from one relay 
station to another, going and returning, arriving back in Salis- 
bury and returning to his bed without a person ever knowing he 
had left his room after entering it. 

The rider was an aristocrat, knew the horse at every stage 
relay station and could pick the best without disturbing the 
horses or their keepers. Determined to carry out his mission of 



420 The North Carolina Historical Review 

revenge against a man whom he did not consider worthy of even 
the consideration he might give a mad dog, armed with a blade 
of truest and sharpest steel and urged on by an unforgivable 
offense, he raced forth and back on his mission of death, un- 
known, undiscovered and unsuspected until his own lips in 
death revealed the tragedy and its cause. It is claimed that even 
today ghosts walk about this old house, strange noises are heard, 
and haunts lead dogs from their trails both during the day and 
night. 21 

The extensive accommodations which tradition ascribes to 
Catawba Springs must have been additions during the Hampton 
regime. When William S. Simonton advertised the resort for sale 
in 1835 he claimed only that the houses were sufficient for enter- 
taining sixty or seventy boarders. As the later hotel is now re- 
membered, and it was not demolished until the present century, it 
consisted of one hundred rooms (very small) and "was built on 
a large hill adjacent to the springs, bath houses were erected 
across on the opposite bluff and slave houses were scattered over 
the place at convenient points. The building was two stories high, 
in the formation of a T.' Wide porches stretched all around the 
house and as many as from 200 to 500 guests would at times 
assemble there . . . during the Christmas holidays and New Year 
festivities hard liquor was passed around among the guests." 22 

The War between the States put an end to the prospects of 
Catawba Springs and to the planter class which had patronized 
it. The leisurely life of the ante-bellum Carolinian who was lord 
of a hundred (or even a dozen) slaves was destined never to re- 
appear. When wealth came again to the South it came to a people 
who had never known or who had largely forgotten the planta- 
tion tradition. Towns had grown up and business men and their 
families felt no urge to flee from the isolation which had been the 
lot of the planters. The "city rich" preferred a house in the coun- 
try to a hotel at the Springs. Also, railroads and good highways 
opened mountain resorts which had not been accessible during 
the stagecoach era. It is safe to predict that "a summer at the 
Springs" is as much a part of the closed past as are the elaborate 
manners which characterized its clientele. 



21 Hazel Mizelle, "Legends of Catawba Springs and the Old South," The Charlotte Observer 
(Charlotte, N. C), October 13, 1929. 

22 Mizelle, "Legends of Catawba Springs." 



THE CAROLINA BRIGADE SENT AGAINST THE CREEK 

INDIANS IN 1814 

By John K. Mahon 

During the second war with England, North Carolina — like the 
other states with Atlantic coastlines, though to a lesser degree — 
placed several thousand men in federal service. 1 Some of the men 
were used to guard the great port of Norfolk, Virginia, but most 
of them were placed along the coast of their own home state. Only 
a few ever saw the enemy. 

In 1814 the state was also called upon to provide a regiment 
to fight against the Creek Indians in the portion of the Missis- 
sippi Territory which is now Alabama. The composition of the 
regiment, as we shall see, was unusual; and so was the brigade 
of which it was to form one half. The quality that made the 
brigade unusual was the fact that the two regiments in it came 
from different states: one from North Carolina, the other from 
South Carolina. Although not unknown, it was uncommon, in 
the War of 1812, to brigade regiments from different states. 

The Secretary of War, John Armstrong, sent the order creat- 
ing the brigade to Major General Thomas Pinckney, who was 
federal commander of the military district which included the 
two Carolinas. 2 Nearly two years of war had taught Armstrong 
to explain in detail the organization of the troops that he re- 
quested from the states. Otherwise he could not be sure of the 
number of men, and particularly of the number of officers who 
would turn out. As recently as 1809, for example, North Carolina 
had had regimen